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IN SEARCH OF A 
SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 




Washington B. Vanderlip 

After photograph taken in 1899, at Indian Point, Bering Sea 



IN SEARCH OF A 
SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 



AS NARRATE^ BY 

WASHINGTON B^VANDERLIP 

THE CHIEF ACTOR 

AND 

HEREIN SET FORTH BY 

HOMER B. HULBERT 



ILLUSTRATED WITH 
MANY PHOTOGRAPHS 




*®&m&f£^&&i8i> 



NEW YORK 

THE CENTURY CO. 

1903 



• > ' , i > 



• •. »*. 



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2> 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

OCT 7 1903 

Copy ught Entry 
CUSS A» XXc No 

&> oin e 01 

COPY B. 






Copyright, 1903, by 
The Century Co. 



Published, October, 1903 



THE DE VINNE PRESS 



TO 
"THE LITTLE MOTHER 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. OUTFIT AND SUPPLIES 

Rumor of gold in northeastern Asia— Plan to pros- 
pect through Kamchatka and north to Bering Strait — 
Steamer Cosmopolite— Russian law in the matter of 
liquor traffic— I make up my party and buy supplies — 
Korean habits of dress— Linguistic difficulties .... 3 

II. SAGHALIEN AND THE CONVICT STATION 

AT KORSAKOVSK 

Departure of the expedition — Arrival at Korsakovsk— 
Condition of convict station — Freedom allowed prison- 
ers, most of whom are murderers — Wreck of the 
steamer and loss of outfit — Gold lace and life-preser- 
vers — Return to Korsakovsk — Russian table manners 
— The Russian's naive attitude toward bathing — Some 
results of the intermarriage of criminals — How Yankee 
shrewdness saved some confiscated photographs — Pleas- 
ant sensations on being shaved by a murderer — Pre- 
dominance of American goods 20 

III. PETROPAULOVSK AND SOUTHERN KAM- 

CHATKA 

Volcanoes of Kamchatka and the superstitious natives 
— The first prospecting trip — Copper found, but no 
gold— Mosquitos cause an evacuation of the land — The 
typical Chinese peddler 43 

IV. SALMON-FISHING IN THE FAR NORTH 
Tide that rises twenty-five feet — Wholesale suicide of 
salmon— Fish-eyes as a delicacy for sea-gulls— How 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

the natives store fish for the sledge-dogs —The three 
varieties of salmon — An Arcadian land for the birds . 51 



V. THE TOWN OF GHIJIGA 

The sacred icon and the sewing-machine both in evi- 
dence — The native " process of getting married " — Mrs. 
Braggin's piano — American pack-saddles and Russian 
obstinacy — Theodosia Chrisoffsky and his sixty descen- 
dants 64 

VI. OFF FOR THE TUNDRA— A NATIVE FAMILY 
Hard traveling — The native women — A mongrel race — 
Chrisoffsky's home and family and their ideas of 
domestic economy — Boiled fish-eyes a native delicacy — 
Prospecting along the Ghijiga 79 

VII. TUNGUSE AND KORAK HOSPITALITY 

My Korak host—'' Bear !" — I shoot my first arctic fox 
— My Tunguse guide — Twenty-two persons sleep in a 
twelve-foot tent — Tunguse family prayers— The advent 
of Howka— Chrisoffsky once more 92 

VIII. DOG-SLEDGING AND THE FUR TRADE 

Description of the sledge and its seven pairs of dogs — 
The harness — The useful polka— The start-off a gym- 
nastic performance for the driver — Methods of steering 
and avoiding obstructions while going at full speed — 
Dog-trading en route— Dog-fights are plentiful— Prices 
of sable and other skins in the native market — The four 
grades of sables— How they live and what they live on 
— A Russian writer on sable hunting — Days when a 
native would barter eighteen sable skins for an ax . . 116 

IX. OFF FOR- THE NORTH— A RUNAWAY 

My winter wardrobe of deerskin — Shoes that keep the 
feet warm when it is sixty degrees below zero— Pie- 
mania, a curious native food in tabloid form — Other 
provisions— Outline of proposed exploration about the 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER PAGE 

sources of the Ghijiga River— Four hours of sun a day 
— When dog meets deer — A race for life and a ludi- 
crous denouement— More queer native dishes— Curious 
habits of the sledge-dog 139 



X. THROUGH THE DRIFTS 

Sledging over snow four feet deep — Making a camp in 
the snow — Finding traces of gold — A grand slide down 
a snow-covered hill — My polka breaks with disastrous 
results — Prospecting over the Stanovoi range .... 155 

XL BURIED IN A BLIZZARD 

A trip to the northern side of the Stanovoi range of 
mountains— Nijni Kolymsk, the most-feared convict 
station— Sledging by light of the aurora— Lost in a 
blizzard on the vast tundra— Five days in a snow dug- 
out — I earn a reputation as a wizard — Back at Chris- 
offsky's 167 



XII. CHRISTMAS— THE "DEER KORAKS" 

I celebrate Christmas day with the over-kind assistance 
of two hundred natives — Koraks as sharp-shooters — 
Comic features of a Russian dance— Off for Kaminaw 
— Another runaway — Slaughtering deer — A curious 
provision of nature — Eight families in one yourta — 
Korak method of washing dishes — A herd of ten thou- 
sand deer 177 



XIII. HABITS AND CUSTOMS OF THE KORAKS 

The hour-glass houses — Their curious construction — 
The natives prove to be both hospitable and filthy — 
Dialects of Dog Koraks and Deer Koraks— Some un- 
pleasant habits— How they reckon time— Making liquor 
out of mushrooms — Curious marriage customs — Clothes 
of the natives— Queer notions of a deity —Jealousy of the 
wandering Koraks— Thieving a virtue and childbirth a 
social function 205 



x CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIV. OFF FOR BERING SEA— THE TCHUKTCHES 

The Tchuktches are the Apaches of Siberia— Their hos- 
pitality to Americans and their hostility to Russians — 
Wherein my experiences differ from those of Mr. 
Harry DeWindt — Result of licking a piece of stone 
with the thermometer at 45° below zero— Konikly — 
Power of moral suasion in dealing with a rebellious 
Korak— The cure of a dying woman and the disgust of 
her husband— Poll-tax and the Tchuktches 224 



XV. A PERILOUS SUMMER TRIP 

The tundra in summer — Crossing the swift Paran River 
—Literally billions of mosquitos— Unique measures of 
protection against these pests — Mad race down the 
Uchingay River on a raft — Lighting a fire with a pistol 
— Narrow escape from drowning — Fronyo proves to be 
a man of mettle— Pak is caught stealing from slim sup- 
ply of provisions and receives chastisement — Subsisting 
on wild onions and half-ripe berries — Help at last . . 255 

XVI. A TEN-THOUSAND-MILE RACE 

Persistent rumors of gold in the Tchuktche peninsula 
— Count Unarliarsky — I am called to Vladivostok to 
fit out an expedition— Our vessel arrives off Indian 
Point — Charging through the ice-floes — A meeting with 
Eskimos— Our prospecting proves fruitless— We meet 
the rival expedition in Plover Bay — Their chagrin — 
The end .292 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Washington B. Vanderlip Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Map showing the territory covered by Mr. Vander- 
lip in his search for a Siberian Klondike ... 5 

Korean Miners 15 

Market-place, Korsakovsk, Saghalien Island . . £5 

Russian Murderers in Angle of Prison-House, 

Korsakovsk, Saghalien Island ...... 37 

Main Street of Petropaulovsk, Kamchatka ... 45 

A River of Dead Salmon — August 53 

The Salmon Catch 57 

Ghijiga . . . . . . . 65 

Russian Church, Ghijiga ..„„.... 71 

xi 



xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



House in Ghijiga occupied by Mr. Vanderlip and 

his Party 75 

House of Theodosia Chrisoffsky, Christowic . . 81 

Start from Ghijiga, Summer-time. Theodosia 

Chrisoffsky and Family — Fourteen Children . 87 

Village of Christowic, Okhotsk Sea 93 

Mr. Vanderlip on " Bill " 99 

The Pride of the Family 105 

Mr. Vanderlip crossing Turumcha River . . . Ill 

Sledge-dogs, showing Harness^ and Method of 

Hitching 119 

Mr. Vanderlip's Dog-sled loaded . . . . . . 125 

Ghijiga River in Winter 129 

Deer crossing River 141 

Reindeer 145 

Theodosia Chrisoffsky, Guide 151 

Mr. Vanderlip and Reindeer Team 157 

Native Winter Camp 163 

Mr. Vanderlip on March with Deer Outfit . . . 173 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii 

PAGE 

Reindeer 183 



Herd of Reindeer 189 

Reindeer, Herders in background 195 

Reindeer — Summer 201 

Upper View of Underground Hut — Home of the 

Dog Korak 207 

Chinese Pump 213 

One of the Tchuktches — an unconquered Race . 227 

Summit of Kamchatka — First Sight of Bering 

Sea 233 

Kassegan, half-caste Russian trader, and Korak 
wife, living at Boeta, Baron Koff Bay, Kam- 
chatka 239 

In Crater of Extinct Volcano, digging for Sul- 
phur. Baron Koff Bay, Kamchatka .... 245 

Killing Deer for Dog-food 251 

Expedition on march — " Konikly " in foreground 257 

Across the Tundra .... . ... 261 

Tundra Camp 267 



xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

" Kim " in Summer Camp on Tundra .... 273 

Reindeer Feeding 279 

Three Little Half-caste Russians and Native 

Nurse, Ghijiga, Okhotsk Sea 287 

Russian Miners 298 

Picked up on the Ice off St. Lawrence Island . . 299 

Natives at Indian Point, Siberia 303 

Eskimo Village, East Cape — Northeastern Point 

of Asia 307 

Plover Bay, Siberia, in July 313 



PREFACE 

The following pages are the result of one of 
those delightful partnerships in which the party 
of the first part had all the adventures, pleasant 
and otherwise, while the party of the second part 
had only to listen to their recital and put them 
down on paper. The next best thing to seeing 
these things for one's self is to hear of them from 
the lips of such a delightful raconteur as Mr. 
Vanderlip. Whatever defects may be found in 
these pages must be laid at the door of the scribe ; 
but whatever is entertaining and instructive is 
due to the keen observation, the retentive memory, 
and the descriptive powers of the main actor in 
the scenes herein depicted. 

H. B. H. 

Seoul, Korea, December, 1902. 



IN SEARCH OF A SIBERIAN 
KLONDIKE 



IN SEARCH OF A SIBERIAN 
KLONDIKE 



CHAPTER I 

OUTFIT AND SUPPLIES 

Rumor of gold in northeastern Asia — Plan to prospect 
through Kamchatka and north to Bering Strait — 
Steamer Cosmopolite — Russian law in the matter of 
liquor traffic — I make up my party and buy supplies- — 
Korean habits of dress — Linguistic difficulties. 

WHEN the rich deposits of gold were found 
on the Yukon River, and later in the beach 
sands of Cape Nome, the question naturally arose 
as to how far these deposits extended. Sensa- 
tional reports in the papers, and the stories of 
valuable nuggets being picked up along the ad- 
jacent coast of Asia, fired the imagination of the 
Russians, who hoped, and perhaps not without 
reason, to repeat the marvelous successes which 
had been met with on the American side. The 
existence of valuable gold deposits in other parts 
of Siberia lent color to the belief that the gold- 
bearing belt extended across from America to Si- 



4 IN SEARCH OF A 

beria, and that consequently the Asiatic shores of 
Bering Sea ought to be well worth prospecting. 

No people were ever more alive to the value of 
mineral deposits than the Russians, and none of 
them have been keener in the search for gold. As 
evidence of this we have but to point to the vast, 
inhospitable wilderness of northern Siberia, where 
gold has been exploited in widely separated dis- 
tricts and under conditions far more trying than 
those which have surrounded any similar under- 
taking, with the exception of the Klondike. 

I had left Chittabalbie, the headquarters of the 
Oriental Consolidated Mining Company, — an 
American firm that is successfully exploiting the 
gold deposits of northern Korea, — and being 
enamoured of a wandering life, I found myself 
one morning entering the magnificent harbor of 
Vladivostok, the eastern terminus of the Sibe- 
rian Railway and the principal Russian distribut- 
ing center on the Pacific coast. 

I believed that as the northeastern extremity of 
Asia was as yet virgin ground to the prospector, 
there would be no better opportunity for the 
practice of my profession than could be found in 
the town of Vladivostok. The surmise proved 
correct, and I was almost immediately engaged 
by a Russian firm to make an extended prospect- 
ing tour in Kamchatka, through the territory 
north of the Okhotsk Sea and along the shores of 




Map showing the territory covered by Mr. Vanderlip 
in his search for a Siberian Klondike. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 7 

Bering Sea. This arrangement was made with 
the full cognizance and approval of the Russian 
authorities. I carried a United States passport. 
The Russians gave me another at Vladivostok, 
and through the Governor-general at that place I 
secured an open letter to all Russian magistrates 
in eastern Siberia, instructing them to give me 
whatever help I might need in the procuring of 
food, sledge-dogs, reindeer, guides, or anything 
else that I might require. Not only were no ob- 
stacles put in my way, but I was treated with the 
utmost courtesy by these officials, who seemed to 
realize the possible value of the undertaking. 

My instructions were to go first to the town of 
Petropaulovsk, on the southern point of the pe- 
ninsula of Kamchatka, and explore the sur- 
rounding country for copper. The natives had 
brought in samples of copper ore, and it was also 
to be found in the beach sands near Petropaul- 
ovsk, as well as in a neighboring island, called 
Copper Island, where the Russians had opened 
up a mine some seventy years before, but without 
success. I was next to go north to Baron KofF 
Bay, on the eastern coast of the peninsula, near 
its neck, and examine some sulphur deposits 
which were supposed to exist in that vicinity and 
which the government was very desirous of work- 
ing. From that point I was to cross the neck of 
the peninsula by reindeer sledge to the head of 



8 IN SEARCH OF A 

the eastern branch of the Okhotsk Sea, my ob- 
jective point being Cape Memaitch, where I was 
to prospect for gold. It had been reported that 
on two successive years an American schooner 
had touched at this point and carried away full 
cargoes of gold ore to San Francisco. I was then 
to pass around the head of the Okhotsk Sea to 
the important trading town of Ghijiga. This 
was the headquarters, some thirty years ago, of 
the Russo- American Telegraph Company, with 
which Mr. George Kennan was connected and 
where he spent one winter. 

Making this my headquarters, I was to work 
out in various directions in search of the yellow 
metal, and finally I was to use my own judgment 
as to whether I should strike northeast to Bering 
Strait, following the Stenova range of moun- 
tains, or southward to Ola, where a steamship 
could stop and take me off the following sum- 
mer. As we shall see, the main points of this plan 
were carried out, though not in the order here 
given. 

As to the means for reaching Kamchatka I 
had no choice. There is no royal mail steam- 
ship route to these boreal regions. A " tramp ' : 
steamship is annually chartered by the great firm 
of Kunst and Albers in Vladivostok, and re- 
chartered by them to the Russian government, to 
take the Governor-general on his annual visit to 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 9 

Saghalien and the trading posts in Kamchatka, 
and even as far northward as Anadyr, situated 
inland from Bering Sea on the Anadyr River. 
At each of these trading posts is a Russian magis- 
trate, or nitcheilnik; and a guard of about twenty 
Cossacks. The annual steamer carries the sup- 
plies for these officials and for the traders, as well 
as the goods which are used in trade. On her re- 
turn, the steamer brings back the furs of the Rus- 
sian Chartered Company, who hold all the furring 
rights of northeastern Siberia. 

In the summer of 1898 the steamer Cosmopo- 
lite was scheduled to make the annual voyage. 
She was a German tramp steamer of one thousand 
tons. Besides the captain there was but one other 
foreign officer. The crew was Chinese. In addi- 
tion to the annual mails she carried a full cargo of 
tea, flour, sugar, tobacco, and the thousand and one 
articles that make the stock in trade of the agents 
of the Chartered Company. She was allowed to 
carry no wines or liquors, with the exception of 
sixty bottles of vodka for each trader, and that 
for his private use only. He is strictly forbidden 
to sell a drop to the natives. For a first offense 
he is heavily fined, and for a second he serves a 
term of penal servitude on the island of Sagha- 
lien. This law is in brilliant contrast to the 
methods of other governments in respect to 
liquors. Africa and the Pacific Islands bear wit- 



10 IN SEARCH OF A 

ness to the fact that, from the standpoint both of 
humanity and mere commercial caution, the Rus- 
sian government is immeasurably ahead of other 
powers in this respect. The sale of intoxicants 
demoralizes the natives and " kills the goose that 
lays the golden egg." Of course there is an occa- 
sional evasion of the law. The natives of Siberia 
are passionately fond of spirits of any kind, and, 
having tasted a single glass, will sell anything 
they have — even their wives and daughters — for 
another. When they are in liquor a single wine- 
glass of vodka will induce them to part with furs 
which in the London market would bring ten 
pounds. Besides this annual steamship, two Rus- 
sian men-of-war cruise north along the coast, 
looking for American whalers who bring alco- 
holic liquors to exchange for skins. 

I decided to take with me two Koreans from 
Vladivostok. They were gold-miners from 
southern Siberia. Being expert horse-packers 
and woodsmen and speaking a little Russian, 
they were sure to be of great use to me. They 
were named Kim and Pak respectively; both are 
among the commonest family names in Korea, 
the Kim family having originated at least as early 
as 57 B. c. Kim was thirty years old and was 
possessed of a splendid physique. He could take 
up four hundred pounds of goods and carry them 
a quarter of a mile without resting. Koreans are 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 11 

taught from childhood to carry heavy weights on 
their backs. They use a chair-like frame, called a 
jigij which distributes the weight evenly over the 
shoulders and hips and enables them to carry the 
maximum load with the minimum of fatigue. 
Kim was always good-natured even under the 
most discouraging circumstances, and he was 
fairly honest. Pak was thirty-eight, tall and 
thin, but enormously strong. He enjoyed the 
possession of only one eye, for which reason I 
promptly dubbed him " Dick Deadeye." He was 
a cautious individual, and always " packed " his 
money in his clothes, sewed up between the vari- 
ous thicknesses of cloth; and whenever he had a 
bill to pay and could not avoid payment, he would 
retire to a secluded place, rip himself open, and 
return with the money in his hand and a myste- 
rious look on his face, as if he had picked the 
money off the bushes. 

Having secured the services of this precious 
pair, I promptly marched them off to the store of 
one Enoch Emory to exchange their loose Ko- 
rean clothes for something more suited to the 
work in hand. This Enoch Emory, by the way, is 
a character unique in Siberian history. When 
sixteen years old he came out from New England 
as cabin-boy on a sailing vessel which had been 
sent by an American company to establish trad- 
ing stations on the Amur. He left the vessel and 



12 IN SEARCH OF A 

went into one of the company's stores. He now 
" owns " the company and is one of the wealthiest 
merchants in Siberia. The company operates im- 
mense stores in Nikolaievsk, Blagovestchensk, 
and Khabarovka, with a large receiving store 
at Vladivostok. Emory always favors American 
goods and sells immense numbers of agricultural 
implements and of other things in the manufac- 
ture of which America excels. This is the only 
great American firm in Siberia. Emory makes 
his home in Moscow and comes out once a year to 
inspect his stores. He is a typical Yankee of the 
David Harum stamp. 

When my two proteges came to change Korean 
dress for American it was difficult to decide just 
where the dress left off and the man began. The 
Korean bathing habits are like those of the me- 
dieval anchorite, and an undergarment, once 
donned, is lost to memory. Besides the two Ko- 
reans, I engaged the services of a Russian secre- 
tary named Nicolai Andrev. He was an old man 
and not by any means satisfactory, but he was the 
only one I could get who knew the Russian min- 
ing laws and who could make out the necessary 
papers, in case I should have occasion to stake out 
claims. As it turned out, he hampered the move- 
ments of the party at every turn; he could not 
stand the hard knocks of the journey, and I was 
obliged to drop him later at the town of Ghijiga. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 13 

His lack of teeth rendered his pronunciation of 
Russian so peculiar that he was no help to me in 
acquiring the language, which is not easy to learn 
even under the best of circumstances. I was also 
accompanied by a young Russian naturalist 
named Alexander Michaelovitch Yankoffsky. 
As this name was quite too complicated for 
everyday use, I had my choice of paring it down 
to " Alek," " Mike," or " Yank," and while my 
loyalty to Uncle Sam would naturally prompt me 
to use the last of these I forbore and Alek he 
became. He did not take kindly to it at first, for 
it is de rigueur to address a Russian by both 
his first and second names, the latter being his 
father's name with vitch attached. This was out 
of the question, however, and he succumbed to the 
inevitable. 

So our complete party consisted of five men, 
representing three languages. None of my men 
knew any English, and I knew neither Russian 
nor Korean, beyond a few words and phrases. 
But before two months had elapsed, I had, by the 
aid of a pocket dictionary, my little stock of Ko- 
rean words, and a liberal use of pencil and paper, 
evolved a triglot jargon of English, Korean, and 
Russian that would have tried the patience of the 
most charitable philologist. 

The steamer was to sail in eight days, and this 
necessitated quick work in making up my outfit. 



14 IN SEARCH OF A 

For guns I picked a twelve-bore German fowl- 
ing-piece with a rifle-barrel beneath, in order to 
be equipped for either small or large game with- 
out being under the necessity of carrying two 
guns at once ; a Winchester repeating rifle, 45-90 ; 
an .88 Mannlicher repeating rifle; and two 45- 
caliber Colt revolvers. As money is little used 
among the natives of the far North, it was neces- 
sary to lay in a stock of goods to use in trade. 
For this purpose I secured one thousand pounds 
of Moharka tobacco. It is put up in four-ounce 
packages and costs fifteen rouble cents a pound. 
I procured also two thousand pounds of sugar 
both for personal use and for trade. This comes 
in solid loaves of forty pounds each. Next in 
order came two thousand pounds of brick-tea. 
Each brick contains three pounds, and in Han- 
kau, where it is put up, it costs twelve and a half 
cents a brick. It is made of the coarsest of the 
tea leaves, twigs, dust, dirt, and sweepings, and is 
the kind universally used by the Russian peasan- 
try. I also secured one hundred pounds of beads, 
assorted colors, and a goodly stock of needles, to- 
gether with ten pounds of colored sewing-silks 
which the natives use to embroider the tops of 
their boots and the edges of their fur coats. 
Then came a lot of pipe-bowls at a cent apiece, 
assorted " jewelry," silver and brass rings, silk 
handkerchiefs, powder and shot, and 44-caliber 



o 




SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 17 

cartridges. The last mentioned would be use- 
ful in dealing with the natives near the coast, 
who commonly use Winchester rifles. Those 
further inland use the old-fashioned musket ex- 
clusively. 

For my own use I laid in a goodly supply of 
Armour's canned beef, canned fruits, dried fruits, 
lime-juice, bacon, three thousand pounds of 
beans, canned tomatoes, tinned butter, coffee, 
German beef -tea put up in capsules an inch long 
by half an inch thick (which proved extremely 
fine), and canned French soups and conserves. 
Besides these things, and more important than 
all, I took two tons of black bread — the ordinary 
hard rye bread of Russia, that requires the use of 
a prospecting hammer or the butt of a revolver to 
break it up. This was necessary for barter as 
well as for personal use. 

Judging from my experiences in Australia, 
Burma, Siam, and Korea, as well as from my 
reading of Nansen, I thought it best not to en- 
cumber myself with any liquors excepting four 
bottles of brandy, which were carried in the medi- 
cine-chest and used for medicinal purposes only. 
My medical outfit consisted of four main articles, 
quinine, morphine, iodoform, and cathartic pills. 
With these four one can cope with almost any- 
thing that is likely to happen. The chest con- 
tained also bandages, absorbent cotton, mustard 



18 IN SEARCH OF A 

leaves, a hot-water bottle, two small surgeon's 
knives, and a pair of surgical scissors. 

After a prolonged search for really good pack- 
saddles, I concluded that such things were un- 
known in Siberia ; so, calling in a Chinese carpen- 
ter, I gave him a model of an Arizona pack-sad- 
dle, with instructions to turn out a dozen at the 
shortest possible notice. I proposed to teach my 
Koreans how to throw the "diamond hitch," but I 
found later, to my humiliation, that what the Ko- 
rean does not know about packing is not worth 
knowing. Either Kim or Pak could do it quicker 
and better than I. Two thousand years of this sort 
of thing have left little for the Korean to learn. 

Mining-tools were of course a necessity. Even 
in Vladivostok I could not secure what I wanted. 
I therefore took what I could get. I purchased 
drills, hammers, a crow-bar, a German pump 
which was guaranteed to pump sand (but which 
I found later would pump nothing thicker than 
pure water), a quantity of blasting powder called 
" rack-a-rock," picks, shovels, wire, nails, and 
other sundries. The Russian shovel is an instru- 
ment of torture, being merely a flat sheet of iron 
with a shank for the insertion of a handle, which 
latter is supposed to be made and fitted on the 
spot. As there is no bend at the neck of the 
shovel, the lack of leverage makes it a most un- 
wieldy and exasperating utensil. As for the Rus- 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 19 

sian pick, it has but one point, and in its construc- 
tion is clumsy beyond belief. Even the Korean 
picks are better. I also carried a simple blow- 
pipe outfit, an aneroid, a compass, gold-screens, 
and gold-pans, with other necessary appliances 
for prospecting. These preparations were made 
very hurriedly, as the Cosmopolite was the only 
steamer going north during the season. 

Tourists sometimes ask if it would not be pos- 
sible to secure passage on this annual steamer and 
take the trip along the coast to Bering Sea and 
back. There is nothing to prevent it. The trip 
of three months, stopping at ten or twelve points 
along the coast, could be made for about three 
hundred roubles, a rouble representing fifty cents 
in gold. But the trip would be of little value or 
interest, because, in the first place, the natives 
bring down their furs to the trading stations dur- 
ing the winter, when the ice makes traveling pos- 
sible, so that one would have very little oppor- 
tunity of seeing anything of native life, or of 
securing any of the valuable furs that come out 
of this region each year. It would be impossible 
for the tourist to pick up any good ones in sum- 
mer. Outside of natives and furs, it is difficult 
to see what interest there could be in such a trip, 
unless the tourist is studying the habits of mos- 
quitos and midges, in which case he would strike 
a veritable paradise. 



CHAPTER II 

SAGHALIEN AND THE CONVICT STATION 
AT KORSAKOVSK 

Departure of the expedition — Arrival at Korsakovsk — Con- 
dition of convict station — Freedom allowed prisoners, 
most of whom are murderers — Wreck of the steamer and 
loss of outfit — Gold lace and life-preservers — Return to 
Korsakovsk — Russian table manners — The Russian's naive 
attitude toward bathing — Some results of the intermar- 
riage of criminals — How Yankee shrewdness saved some 
confiscated photographs — Pleasant sensations on being 
shaved by a murderer — Predominance of American 
goods. 

4T six o'clock in the afternoon of July 22, 
XV 1898, the Governor-general with his wife 
and suite, resplendent in gold lace and buttons, 
came aboard in the rain. The anchor was heaved 
up and we pointed southward toward the open 
sea, which is reached by way of a passage from 
half a mile to three miles wide and twelve miles 
long. The shore on either side bristles with ar- 
maments which, together with the narrowness of 
the passage, make Vladivostok entirely impreg- 
nable from the sea. 

There is a story, however, which the Russians 

20 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 21 

never like to hear. One morning, after a night 
of dense fog, as the sun cleared away the mist, 
four big British men-of-war were found an- 
chored within two hundred yards of the city, and 
could have blown it skyward without a shot from 
the batteries, being safe from the line of fire. 
Since then big guns have been mounted to cover 
the inner harbor. Reaching open water, we 
turned to the northeast and set our course 
toward the southern point of the island of Sagha- 
lien, for the Governor-general was to inspect the 
convict station of Korsakovsk. 

Three days of uneventful steaming at ten 
knots an hour brought the shores of Saghalien 
above the horizon. We saw a long, curved beach 
backed by low-lying hills covered with fields and 
woodland. As the place could boast no harbor, 
we dropped anchor in the open roadstead a mile 
from shore. Our whistle had long since waked 
to life an asthmatic little steam-launch, which 
soon came alongside. We forthwith invaded her 
stuffy little cabin and she waddled shoreward. 

As we approached the rough stone quay, we 
had our first glimpse of Russian convict life. A 
gang of prisoners were at work mending the sea- 
wall. Some of them wore heavy iron balls at their 
ankles, which they had to lift and carry as they 
walked, else they dragged ponderously along the 
ground. These balls would weigh about a hun- 



22 IN SEARCH OF A 

dred pounds apiece. The convicts seemed to be 
well fed, but were excessively dirty and unkempt. 
They appeared to be men of the very lowest 
grade of mental development. It must be re- 
membered that no political convicts are confined 
on the island of Saghalien. They are kept in the 
far interior of Siberia, where the chances of es- 
cape are much less, and where there is no possi- 
bility of contact with others than their own jail- 
ers. The convicts on Saghalien are almost all 
desperate criminals. As there is no such thing as 
capital punishment in Siberia, Saghalien is the 
terrestrial Valhalla of these doomed men, a sort 
of ante-mortem purgatory. 

We stepped out upon the quay and walked up 
into the town. The street was about fifty feet 
wide, with a neat plank walk on either side. The 
houses were all log structures, but not the kind we 
are accustomed to associate with that name. The 
Russian makes the best log house in the world. 
The logs are squared and carefully fitted to- 
gether. The windows are mostly double, and the 
houses, all of one story, are warm enough to be 
habitable. The streets are lined with small shops 
and stores. The entire population outside of the 
officials consists of convicts, most of whom enjoy 
almost complete freedom within the limits of the 
town. It gives one a queer feeling to walk 
through the streets of a town and know that all 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 23 

the storekeepers, carpenters, blacksmiths, clerks, 
butchers, and bakers are or have been desperate 
criminals. This town of Korsakovsk contains 
about two thousand people, of whom nine tenths 
are convicts. 

I asked if I might inspect the prison, expecting 
a prompt refusal, and was surprised when in- 
formed that I could go wherever I pleased. Ap- 
proaching the main entrance to the prison, I found 
the two heavy gates off their hinges and the con- 
victs coming and going at their own pleasure. A 
sleepy Cossack was on guard, and he did not even 
challenge me. The prison buildings were ar- 
ranged around a large quadrangle. The pris- 
oners were talking, lying about at their ease, with 
a few at work on little wood carvings. 

I was astonished to see no prison bars any- 
where, but after I had looked about at my leisure, 
one of the officers took me in charge and led me 
into another part of the grounds, where we found 
a sentry on guard, armed only with a revolver. 
This guard took us in hand and conducted us to 
a small building which appeared to be heavily 
barred. Inside were rows of clean, dry, white- 
washed cells, half a dozen of which were occupied 
by convicts who had recently committed murder 
on the island, and were about to be sent north to 
the dreaded coal-mines, where they would be 
chained to wheelbarrows. These would be their 



24 IN SEARCH OF A 

constant companions for seven years, night and 
day, summer and winter. 

In the workshops the convicts seemed to be 
trying to do as little as possible. They were 
making tools, hinges, horse-shoes, farming-im- 
plements, and other simple ironwork. In another 
portion of the shops they were making wagons 
and carts. Very many of the convicts are far- 
mers, and they seemed to be cultivating the sur- 
rounding fields with success. In the main offices 
I found a dozen clerks smoking and drinking tea. 
They were all convicts, most of them having dark 
crimes to their discredit. 

Leaving the prison, we walked down the street 
and soon came to a little stand, where bread and 
milk were being sold by a nice-looking Russian 
girl. I asked on what charge she had been 
brought to Saghalien. The officer interpreted my 
question. The girl laughed and said that she had 
murdered her husband. She was twenty-three 
years old. 

We had arrived at ten in the morning, and, as 
we left at four in the afternoon, my inspection of 
the town was necessarily brief, but enough had 
been seen to give impetus to even a very ordinary 
imagination. 

When we had all embarked again and the bell 
in the engine-room gave the signal for starting, 
we were enveloped in a thick mist ; but as we had 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 27 

open sea before us and nothing, apparently, to 
fear, we drove ahead at full speed through the 
dense fog, pointing southeast in order to round 
the southern point of the island and make our 
way up the eastern coast. We might have been 
more cautious had not the Governor-general been 
in haste. As it turned out, we would have done 
better to proceed more slowly; for shortly after 
eight o'clock, as I was sitting at dinner with the 
captain and the first officer, we heard the second 
mate on the bridge call loudly: " Hard aport! 
Ice ahead! " The captain rushed to the bridge, 
and I made my way to the prow of the boat. 
Peering through the fog in the failing light, I 
descried a low, white line that looked like ice, be- 
hind which a great dark mass rose high in the air. 
We had not begun to slow down yet, and almost 
instantly we struck with terrific force, which 
threw me to my knees. I scrambled to my feet 
and peered over the rail. I saw that the white 
line was not ice, but surf, and the dark object be- 
hind it was a cliff which towered hundreds of feet 
in the air. 

The utmost confusion prevailed among the 
Chinese crew and the Korean stevedores. It 
looked as if there would be serious trouble. I 
made my way as rapidly as possible to my state- 
room and buckled on my revolvers, tore my valise 
open and stuffed a package of money into my 



28 IN SEARCH OF A 

pocket, and hurried on deck to help put down any 
rush that the Asiatics might make for the boats. 
The first officer was sounding the forward well, 
and water was already coming into the engine- 
room. The steamer, evidently, was making water 
very fast. As there were so few foreign officers, 
and as the Russians were of no use, the captain 
ordered me to get out the boats. Amid such con- 
fusion this was no easy task, but by means of the 
most sanguinary threats and the show of my re- 
volver, I got enough men together to swing a boat 
over the side. 

Fortunately, there was no sea running at the 
time, and affairs began to assume a more hopeful 
aspect when it was found that we lay on a shelv- 
ing beach and could not sink. We hurriedly sup- 
plied the boats with casks of water and bags of 
biscuits ; but as there was no immediate danger of 
sinking, the captain asked me to take one of the 
boats and explore the shore for a suitable landing- 
place. With a strong headlight in the prow, we 
pushed off in the fog ; and within an hour we were 
back with the news that half a mile up the shore 
there was a good landing-place. The Governor- 
general and his wife and staff were, of course, the 
first to be sent ashore. The lady seemed to take 
it very coolly, even more so than some of the staff. 
The latter, as soon as the alarm sounded, had has- 
tened to their state-rooms and put on their swell- 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 29 

est regimentals. Their gold lace, glittering 
swords, and patent-leather boots seemed curi- 
ously out of place on board the wreck. It re- 
minded me of the ancient Persian custom of 
going into battle in full regalia. These Russians 
left everything but their fine clothes. 

In due time they were landed, and then we 
came back and took off the crew. It was growing 
light and the sea was rising. The steamer began 
to pound on the reef, and it was evident that she 
would not hold together long. The captain said 
he was going to stay on her till she broke up. As 
I was an enthusiastic knight of the camera, I 
thought this would be a good opportunity to se- 
cure a picture of a ship going to pieces, so I deter- 
mined to stay with the captain as long as possible. 
We remained on board all that day and the next 
two, taking watch, by turns, six hours at a time. 
We determined to rig a block and tackle over the 
after hatch, and although this was under water, 
we managed to get hold of the big Russian mail- 
bags and haul them out. Among other things, 
they held fifteen thousand roubles in notes. 

During the second day of our detention we 
sighted the British gunboat Archer passing us to 
the southeast on her way to Kamchatka. We 
tried desperately to attract her attention with 
bombs, but did not succeed. Meanwhile, the chief 
officer had taken the long-boat and part of the 



30 IN SEARCH OF A 

crew and sailed back to Korsakovsk with a fair 
wind, to secure help. Three days later, he re- 
turned with the steam-launch and two lighters, 
one of which was filled with convicts who had been 
brought to help in getting the steamer off the 
rocks, if possible. If not, they were to save what 
cargo they could. They were put into the for- 
ward hold and a few cases were gotten out, but all 
my provisions and outfit were lost except my 
tent, which had been sent ashore for the Gov- 
ernor-general's wife. This, together with my 
valise, camera, guns, and ammunition, was all 
that I had to show for the careful preparation I 
had made. 

My Russian friends had not enjoyed their stay 
on shore under the trying conditions. We threw 
overboard for their use all the ducks and geese, 
which, after disporting themselves a few minutes 
in honor of their new-found liberty, made their 
way to the shore, where they were speedily de- 
spatched with axes by the gentlemen in patent- 
leather boots and gold lace. We also consigned a 
pig to the vasty deep and it nobly struggled 
ashore only to meet the common fate of succu- 
lent pork. Through the glass I could see the 
Governor-general in his swell regimentals with a 
row of medals across his breast lugging an armful 
of driftwood along the shore to the fire. 

And so we made our way back to Korsakovsk, a 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 31 

very discouraged and bedraggled company. The 
Governor-general took me to the house of the 
chief magistrate, where I was given a comfortable 
room, and could once more sit down to a good 
table. That night I ate my first genuine Russian 
dinner. Each person as he enters a dining-room, 
faces the icon which hangs in the corner, and bows 
and crosses himself. The table was loaded with 
tinned preserves, pate de f oie gras, caviar, salted 
salmon, herrings pickled, and raw fish, sardines, 
cheese, sliced raw onions, cold sausages, raw cab- 
bage, and huge piles of black and white bread. 
There was also the usual large carafe of pure 
white vodka, a powerful distilled liquor made 
from rye. Before eating, every glass is filled 
and the host's health is drunk to the accom- 
paniment of " Butches sd rovia," which means, 
" Your good health." 

In eating, you must reach for what you want. 
It is very seldom that anything is passed during 
this first stage of the meal. You would never 
suggest to your neighbor on the right to pass 
you the cheese; but you would rise in your place 
and, with a firm grasp on your knife, reach over 
his plate and impale the tempting morsel. If this 
is not possible, you leave your place and go around 
the table and secure your loot. There is only one 
thing that they will readily pass, and that is the 
vodka. The general aspect of things is that of a 



32 IN SEARCH OF A 

well-patronized free-lunch counter when the train 
is to start in five minutes. It must be confessed 
that Russian table manners are not fashioned on 
ordinary European models. They closely resem- 
ble the Korean method of eating at a public 
feast, when all the food is put on the table at once. 

It is a mistake to suppose this terminates a Rus- 
sian dinner. It has only begun. By this time 
the uninitiated is full to repletion unless he has 
been forewarned, but to the Russian this is but 
the ante-prandial overture. Everything is now 
cleared off the table except the vodka, which is 
never out of sight, and the dinner proper begins 
with soup. I must say that this soup is the heavi- 
est and richest it has ever been my fortune to 
taste. Alone, it would form a full meal for any 
one less robust than the ordinary Russian. Each 
guest adds to his soup two or three heaping 
spoonfuls of sour whipped cream. 

Their method of eating soup appeals as much 
to the ear as to the eye. Perhaps they go on the 
principle that soup must be eaten as audibly as 
possible, for this means that it is so good you can- 
not wait for it to cool. 

My Russian naturalist, Alek, was a fair sample 
of an educated Russian, and he turned to me and 
said: 

" I see that vou eat with a fork." 

a/ 

" Yes," said I; " and I see that you do not." 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 33 

" No ; but I had a sister who studied at an Eng- 
lish convent in Japan for a year or so. When she 
came back she ate with a fork, but we soon 
laughed her out of it." 

The end of the Russian knife is broader than 
the portion next the handle, and it is used both as 
a knife and as a spoon. They complain that the 
American knives do not " hold " enough. 

After the soup came fowls, roast meats, vege- 
tables, and two or three more dishes made of 
whipped cream. These last one grows to like. 
Their favorite form of dessert is this same sour 
cream, sprinkled generously with sugar and 
ground cinnamon. When all is seemingly over 
the table is again cleared, and the samovar is 
placed steaming upon the table. Every one takes 
four or five glasses of hot tea, flavored with sliced 
lemon. Some of the Russian tea is very fine. It 
is well known that they drink the costliest as well 
as the cheapest grades. It is more than likely 
that not a pound of the very best tea grown in 
China ever gets farther west than Russia. 

Meanwhile every one is smoking cigarettes, 
men and women alike; not only after dinner but 
between the courses. 

My use of the fork was not the only thing that 
distinguished me while in the country of the 
White Czar. Wherever I went, the Russians were 
highly amused at my use of the tooth-brush, 



34 IN SEARCH OF A 

which they consider a peculiarly feminine utensil. 
I was everywhere embarrassed by the total ab- 
sence of the wash-bowl. Such things seem to be 
unknown. A sort of can or ewer of water, with a 
valve in the bottom, lets out a little stream of 
water on the hands; or, oftener still, a mouthful 
of water is taken from a glass and spurted over 
the hands — a much more sanitary method than the 
American, since the Russian does not wash in any 
vessel which has been used by others. The Rus- 
sian objects to any bath excepting the elaborate 
Russian bath, and as this can be obtained only in 
the centers of population, the result is not edify- 
ing. Even on the steamer, where hot and cold 
baths could be had for the asking, the bath-room 
was not patronized. The Russians say of the 
English and Americans that they bathe so much 
that they emit an offensive odor, which turns the 
tables on us somewhat surprisingly and casts 
some doubt upon the truth of the proverb that 
virtue is its own reward. As black, the most 
somber of all colors, is in truth a lack of all color, 
so perhaps the lack of any distinctive odor in the 
well-tubbed Englishman strikes the Russian as 
unpleasant. 

One of the waiters in attendance was a young 
and handsome man of twenty-five, convicted of 
murder. He was dressed in the picturesque cos- 
tume of the Cossack, and, strangely, wore a dag- 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 35 

ger at his side. The woman who brought in the 
samovar had killed an entire family: her hus- 
band, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and her own 
child. She had been married to the waiter a year 
since arriving at Saghalien. The intermarriage 
of criminals raises a delicate penological question, 
considering what the fruit of such unions is likely 
to be. 

After dinner, I suggested to one of the Gover- 
nor's aides that we take a stroll, but the local 
magistrate veteod this, saying that on no account 
must we go out on the street after six o'clock in 
the evening. Our lives would be in immediate 
danger, as murders among the convicts averaged 
one a day on Saghalien. Hundreds have broken 
away and escaped into the interior of the island, 
living on game, roots, and berries. Some roam 
the streets at night, looking for plunder, espe- 
cially when a steamship is in harbor. 

The following day we passed a building which 
seemed to be full of women. They were convicts 
recently landed. On stated days, those male con- 
victs whose conduct has been uniformly good are 
taken to this building where the women are lined 
up and the men are allowed to choose wives for 
themselves. The women are quite willing to be 
chosen, but if they refuse they are not compelled 
to marry. Marriage means that they get away 
from the confinement of the workshops and gain 



36 IN SEARCH OF A 

a snug little home among the neighboring hills, 
with nothing to suggest penal conditions except 
an occasional inspection. If they consent to 
marry, they go immediately to the little cathe- 
dral and are married by the priest. A plot of 
land is allotted to the couple, to clear and culti- 
vate. Possibly a horse, a cow, and a few chickens 
are given them, as well as the inevitable samovar. 
Our saying, " What is home without a mother? " 
might well be rendered in Russian, "What is 
home without a samovar? " All the money that 
they can make by raising produce is their own, 
and will be turned over to them upon the expira- 
tion of their sentences. But most of the convicts 
on Saghalien have sentences which terminate only 
at death. 

The women in the prisons are kept busy mak- 
ing clothes for such convicts as have not been let 
out on good behavior. 

The following day I was invited to attend, at 
the Greek Church, a service of thanksgiving for 
the escape of the passengers and crew of our 
wrecked steamer. The service proved a very im- 
pressive one. The singing, by a choir of convicts, 
was especially fine. In these Russian churches 
seats are not provided, and the audience stands or 
kneels during the entire service. 

That afternoon I had the temerity to take my 
camera under my arm and stroll through the 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 39 

prison grounds. To my great surprise, I was 
permitted to take what photographs I pleased. 
Even the guards lined up and were " snapped," 
much to their delight. I also secured a picture of 
a convict being knouted for some slight misde- 
meanor. This is very common, and is done by 
tying the offender to a bench, face down, and in- 
flicting the necessary number of blows on his 
back. 

As the light began to fail I remembered the 
magistrate's injunction about being indoors be- 
fore dark, and so made my way home to dinner, 
during which I sat at the same table with the 
magistrate. He was a man of considerable 
ability, and made good use of the English lan- 
guage. During the meal he leaned over toward 
me and said, smiling : 

' I understand you have been taking some pic- 
tures." 

" Yes," I answered penitently. 

' Well, of course that is against the law, and 
I am afraid I shall have to ask you to turn those 
plates over to me." 

I expostulated mildly, but found that his mind 
was firmly made up on the matter. To tell the 
truth, my mind was also made up on the matter. 

"But," said I, "the plates are still in the 
camera, undeveloped." 

' Oh, well, bring your camera along and I will 



40 IN SEARCH OF A 

develop them for you," — this with a little smile of 
amusement. 

" Shall I go now," said I, pushing my chair 
back from the table, although dinner was not half 
over. 

" Don't think of it. To-morrow morning will 
do just as well." 

And to-morrow morning surely did, for that 
night the camera went to bed with me, and when 
the magistrate smilingly drew out the plates next 
morning and cracked them, one by one, on the 
corner of the table, he was not aware that he was 
spoiling fresh plates. I tried to look as sad as 
the occasion seemed to demand. 

I asked him if any of the convicts ever escaped 
from the island. He gave a short laugh and said : 

" Some of them got away once. I will tell you 
about it. A Japanese fishing-schooner put in 
here under stress of weather and anchored off the 
town. That night eight of the convicts swam off 
to her, murdered the crew, and sailed away with- 
out the slightest knowledge of navigation. Af- 
ter drifting about aimlessly for several days, they 
were picked up by an American whaler and car- 
ried to San Francisco. As soon as the facts be- 
came known, the Russian authorities demanded 
their extradition, but the American papers took 
the matter up and made a great outcry about 
sending back these innocent political convicts to 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 41 

the horrors of Siberia, while the ladies of San 
Francisco heaped confections and flowers upon 
them. The United States authorities declined to 
give them up, though it should have been well 
known that no political suspects are ever sent to 
Saghalien, only tried and condemned criminals. 
But mark the sequel. Within two years all but 
one of those eight men were hung for murder, 
and the remaining one was in prison for life. We 
appreciate the kindness of the United States in 
relieving us of the support of these criminals, and 
she can have all the Russian convicts on the island 
of Saghalien if she wants them, and welcome." 

Saghalien is Russia's gallows, and the incident 
given above shows how philanthropic zeal, if ill- 
informed and misdirected, may easily work harm. 

Having occasion to interview the barber, I en- 
tered a neat shop in company with a Russian offi- 
cial. It was not till the razor was playing about 
my chin that I learned that the barber was a com- 
mon murderer. There was no backing out, for I 
knew not what savage instincts I might arouse in 
him by proposing to leave his place half shaved. 
I generally manage to get a nice little nap when 
under the soothing influence of the barber's hand, 
but this time I confess that I remained rather 
wider awake than usual. The gentle reader can, 
perhaps, imagine my feelings as the keen steel 
rasped across the vicinity of my jugular vein. 

3 



42 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 

Strange to say, the only image that remains in 
my mind's eye is a staring advertisement which 
hung against the wall, and which expatiated with 
Yankee modesty upon the merits of a certain 
American barber-supply house and the unique 
opportunity it offered of securing the best goods 
at the cheapest price. I was informed later that 
this barber combined with his tonsorial occupa- 
tion that of procurer, which shows how wide a 
range of pursuits Russia allows her convicts. 

A superficial examination of the various shops 
which lined the main street of the town showed 
that American canned goods, sheetings, prints, 
flour and other food-stuffs are most in demand. 
The hardware was mostly of cheap German 
manufacture. I saw no English goods displayed. 



CHAPTER III 

PETROPAULOVSK AND SOUTHERN KAMCHATKA 

Volcanoes of Kamchatka and the superstitious natives — The 
first prospecting trip — Copper found, but no gold — Mos- 
quitos cause an evacuation of the land — The typical 
Chinese peddler. 

UPON our return to Korsakovsk from the 
wreck, the Governor-general had imme- 
diately telegraphed the news of the disaster to 
Vladivostok, and had asked that a relief steamer 
be despatched at once. In six days we saw her 
smoke on the horizon, and soon the Swatow, fly- 
ing the German flag, cast anchor off the town. 
She was accompanied by a Russian gunboat, 
which carried the Governor-general and his suite 
back to Vladivostok, as he had been recalled on 
urgent business. 

I found that the Swatow would not be able to 
go up into Bering Sea, but could only visit the 
trading stations on the Okhotsk Sea, at the head 
of which lies the important town of Ghijiga. 
Although my outfit had been so terribly de- 
pleted in the wreck, I was determined to push on 
and live on the country if necessary. The 

43 



44 IN SEARCH OF A 

steamer had brought me a small supply of brick- 
tea, sugar, and hard bread. This slender store I 
supplemented as best I could from the shops in 
Korsakovsk, and boarded the Swatow en route 
for the north. 

On leaving Saghalien for the second time, we 
gave the southern point of the island a wide 
berth, and after ten days of uneventful steaming 
we sighted the shores of the peninsula of Kam- 
chatka, which showed a chain of lofty snow-cov- 
ered mountains, now and again hidden by dense 
banks of fog. 

We entered the magnificent harbor of Petro- 
paulovsk by way of a narrow passage, and found 
ourselves in a landlocked bay, twenty-five miles 
long and ten miles wide. Its shores were well 
wooded, and we could see several fine streams 
as they made their way swiftly down the moun- 
tain-sides to the waters of the bay. At the north- 
ern extremity of the harbor rose the active volcano 
of Avatcha, sixteen thousand feet high from the 
water's edge. About its summit lay heavy masses 
of snow, and above it hovered a thick blanket of 
smoke. Kamchatka lies in the line of volcanic 
activity which stretches from Tierra del Fuego 
in South America northward through South 
and North America, the Aleutian Islands, Kam- 
chatka, the Kurile Islands, Japan, and so south- 
ward; and, therefore, it is not surprising that 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 47 

there should be many semi-active volcanoes on 
the peninsula as well as many hot springs. The 
natives consider both of these the habitations of 
evil spirits, and will not go near them if it can be 
helped. Once a party of Russians forced the na- 
tives to show them the way to one of the hot 
springs, and when the superstitious people saw 
the foreigners looking over the edge of the 
spring, tasting of the water and cooking eggs in 
it, they were filled with wonder, and thought the 
Russians had power over the demons. In port 
we found the British gunboat Archer and a small 
Russian gunboat. 

The town of Petropaulovsk consists of about 
three hundred Russians and half-caste Kamcha- 
dales, presided over by a Russian magistrate, as- 
sisted by a secretary, a physician, and twenty 
Cossacks. With the exception of an imposing 
cathedral, the houses were all built of logs and 
one story in height, but they were neat and sub- 
stantial, and were provided throughout with 
double windows, which are required by the se- 
verity of the winter. 

At that season of the year the country was cov- 
ered with a luxurious growth of vegetation. Of 
trees, so called, there are only the larch and 
birch, but the whole country is covered with a 
dense growth of underbrush, ten feet high, which 
it is impossible to penetrate. Consequently, very 



48 IN SEARCH OF A 

little traveling is done in summer, except on the 
rivers in small boats. Most of this undergrowth 
dies down at the approach of winter, and the snow 
which then covers everything makes traveling 
comparatively easy in any direction. 

As our steamer was to make a little side excur- 
sion of ten days to different trading ports in the 
vicinity and then return to Petropaulovsk, I de- 
termined to remain behind and explore the region 
in search of copper deposits, which had been re- 
ported to exist in the vicinity. I secured a 
stanch little skiff built in San Francisco, and 
after stowing away my tent in the bow I started 
out to prospect along the beach. For the most 
part, I walked while the Koreans rowed the boat 
a little offshore, keeping always within hailing- 
distance. I carefully examined the mineral for- 
mations along the shore. About five miles from 
the town, I came across numerous pieces of cop- 
per " float " (detached fragments from the pa- 
rent ledge) . Striking up the hill above the point 
where this " float " lay, I found the outcroppings 
of a thin seam of bornite, which is a valuable cop- 
per ore if found in quantities. But the thinness 
of the seam was not promising ; so I simply set up 
a claim post, which w r ould hold it for three years, 
with a view to further exploration. 

When night closed in, which in that northerly 
region in summer does not occur till nearly ten 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 40 

o'clock, we pitched our camp beside a brawling 
mountain stream, prepared our supper, and felt 
sure of passing a comfortable right. But within 
ten minutes we were undeceived. The mosquitos 
came down by the millions, and we surrendered at 
discretion, capitulated with the honors of war, 
went out with colors flying and side-arms on, so 
to speak, and spent the night in the boat, an- 
chored some fifty yards from the shore. 

It is not necessary to follow the fortunes of this 
little side excursion, as it did not result in find- 
ing any evidences of valuable deposits of copper. 
So at the appointed time we found ourselves back 
at Petropaulovsk, ready to resume our journey 
toward the north. We found the Swatow in 
port and scheduled to sail the next morning. 

The anchor came up at dawn, and before night 
we lay again at anchor at the mouth of the Tigil 
River, on the western coast of the peninsula. We 
found most of the population of the little village 
of Tigil awaiting our arrival. This village, com- 
posed of a mixed Russian and half-caste popula- 
tion, lies about forty miles up the river; but the 
villagers had all come down to the coast to meet 
the steamer, to fish, and to get away from the 
mosquitos, which are far worse inland than on the 
coast. They were all living in little temporary 
summer huts. 

The first person I met as I stepped ashore ad- 



50 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 

dressed me in good western American. He was 
Mr. Fletcher, a Russian subject, born in Kam- 
chatka of mixed American and Russian parent- 
age. He had been educated in San Francisco. 
He invited me to his little cottage and set before 
me a tempting meal of fresh milk and blueber- 
ries, supplemented by raw, salted and smoked 
fish, vodka, and the contents of the steaming sam- 
ovar. After doing honor to these good things, 
we strolled down to the beach to watch the Chi- 
nese sailors from the steamer lay out the little 
stock of goods that they are allowed to bring with 
them to barter with the natives. The thrifty Ce- 
lestial spreads a piece of canvas on the ground, 
and on it arranges in the most tempting manner 
his stock of hand-mirrors, needles, buttons, soap 
tablets, perfumery, and other articles de luxe. A 
bevy of native girls crowd about him, giggling 
and chaffing, while men elbow their way in to buy 
presents for their sweethearts, paying for them 
in deerskins, fur gloves, and smoked deer tongue. 
Meanwhile the steamer has been busily dis- 
charging the quota of flour, tea, vodka, and other 
things which are required by the officials and trad- 
ers of the station, and in return loading the bales 
of skins and furs consigned to the Russian Char- 
tered Company. 



CHAPTER IV 

SALMON-FISHING IN THE FAR NORTH 

Tide that rises twenty-five feet— Wholesale suicide of 
salmon — Fish-eyes as a delicacy for sea-gulls — How 
the natives store fish for the sledge-dogs — The three 
varieties of salmon — An Arcadian land for the birds. 

LEAVING the mouth of the Tigil River, we 
t steamed northward into the upper arm of 
the Okhotsk Sea. The shore line showed rolling 
hill and mountain country without much timber. 
Three days of steady steaming brought us to the 
extreme limits of the Okhotsk Sea, at the mouth 
of the Ghijiga River. Owing to the shallowness 
of the water, we were obliged to anchor eighteen 
miles off shore. We had on board a small steam- 
launch, for use in towing the lighters to the shore, 
each lighter carrying about twenty-five tons. 
The launch and lighters were soon put over the 
side and their cargoes loaded into them. At ten 
o'clock at night we set off toward the shore. It 
was necessary to start at that hour in order to get 
over the bar at flood-tide. We entered the mouth 
of the river at three in the morning. The sun was 
already up. The width of the estuary was con- 

51 



52 IN SEARCH OF A 

siderable, but it was enormously increased by the 
tide, which rises twenty-five feet and floods the 
fields and plains on either side. The air was lit- 
erally full of sea-gulls, flying very high. Some 
of them were going inland, and some out to sea. 
The odor of decaying fish was almost overpower- 
ing, and was plainly perceptible five miles out. 
This was caused by the enormous number of dead 
salmon that lay on the bar, having been swept 
down the river. 

About the tenth of June the salmon come in 
from the sea and work their way up the river until 
the lack of water bars their further progress. 
Salmon do not run up these rivers until they have 
attained their sixth year of growth. From the 
moment they enter the fresh water of the river, 
they get no food whatever. For this reason they 
must be caught near the river's mouth to be in 
good condition. The female, having gone far up 
the river, finds a suitable place, and deposits her 
eggs; after which the male fish hunts them out 
and fertilizes them. As soon as this has been ac- 
complished there begins a mad rush for death. 
However many millions of salmon may run up 
the river, not one ever reaches the sea again alive. 
They race straight up the river, as if bent on find- 
ing its source. When the river narrows down to 
two hundred feet in width, and is about a foot 
deep, the fish are so crowded together that the 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 55 

water fairly boils with them. And still they 
struggle up and ever up. One can walk into the 
water and kill any number of them with a club. 
After the fish have gone up the river in this fash- 
ion for fifty or sixty miles, they are so poor that 
they are worthless as food, for they have been 
working all this time on an empty stomach. As 
they fight their way up, they seem to grow wilder 
and wilder. Whole schools of them, each num- 
bering anywhere from a hundred to a thousand, 
will make a mad rush for the shore and strand 
themselves. This is what the gulls have been 
waiting for. They swoop down in immense 
flocks and feast upon the eyes of the floundering 
fish. They will not deign to touch any other 
part. Bears also come down the river bank and 
gorge themselves. I have seen as many as seven 
in a single day, huge black and brown fellows, 
feasting on the fish. They eat only certain parts 
of the head, and will not touch the body. They 
wade into the water and strike the fish with their 
paws and then draw them out upon the bank. 
Wolves, foxes, and sledge-dogs also feast upon 
the fish, and for the only time during the year 
get all they want. 

As the fish get further and further away from 
the sea, their flesh grows loose and flabby, the skin 
sometimes turning black and sometimes a bright 
red. They dash themselves against stones, and 



56 IN SEARCH OF A 

rub against the sharp rocks, seemingly with the 
desire to rub the flesh off their bones. The eggs 
of the salmon remain in the river during the win- 
ter, and it is not until the following spring that 
the young fish are swept down to the sea by the 
spring floods. 

Along the banks of the river live the half-breed 
Russians and the natives in their miserable shan- 
ties and skin huts. They fish with long nets made 
of American twine. Fastening one end of the net 
to a stake on one side of the river, they carry the 
other end to the opposite side. In an hour or 
more, the farther end is brought back with a wide 
sweep down stream, which, of course, is the direc- 
tion from which the fish are coming. The two 
ends are brought together, and a team of a dozen 
sledge-dogs hauls the net to the bank. The chil- 
dren kill the fish with clubs. Then they are car- 
ried to the women, who squat upon the sand, and, 
with three deft sweeps of a sharp knife, disem- 
bowel them, and cut off the thick pieces of flesh 
on each side of the backbone. These pieces are 
dried in the sun and form the chief article of food 
among this people. It is called by them yukulle. 
The backbone, the head, and the tail, which re- 
main after the meat is cut off, are then dried, and 
they form the staple food for the sledge-dogs. 

After they have cut up enough fish for one 
year's consumption, they make yet another large 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 59 

catch and throw the whole lot into a pit and cover 
them with earth. If there should be no run of fish 
the following year, these pits could be opened up 
and the contents fed to the dogs, thus saving their 
valuable lives. The natives, who live mainly on 
fish, will not cure more than enough for a single 
season's use. 

They may lay up future store for their dogs, 
but not for their children. When an old fish-pit 
is opened up the stench is terrible, but this does 
not trouble the dogs, for they will eat anything 
into which they can bite. If the natives were will- 
ing to work fifteen days longer, they could easily 
lay up enough food to tide over any ordinary 
famine, but they will not do this unless forced to 
it. Consequently, the Russian Government com- 
pels one or two from each family to work on cer- 
tain government nets, every fish caught being put 
in the " fish-bank " and a record kept of the ex- 
act number due each individual who helps work 
the nets. During several successive good years, 
enough fish are laid up to supply the people at 
least in part during times of scarcity. If these 
should not suffice, the government would buy up 
reindeer from natives in the interior at fifty ko- 
peks a head, and feed them to the destitute peo- 
ple. Fifty kopeks make twenty-five cents in 
United States currency, which seems a small 
price to pay for a reindeer, but in the country of 



60 IN SEARCH OF A 

which we are writing that is a good average price. 
A failure of the fish crop occurs about once in 
seven years. For some reason not yet ascer- 
tained, the fish will entirely desert a river for a 
season. Not infrequently it is found that of two 
rivers whose mouths are not more than a few 
miles apart, the salmon will frequent one and not 
the other. 

The Russian Government forbids the export of 
salmon caught in the rivers or within two miles of 
their mouths. While the people do not destroy 
a thousandth part of one per cent, of the fish that 
run up the river, we must bear in mind that not 
a single fish gets back to the sea after depositing 
its eggs. As the fish are killed as near as possible 
to the river's mouth, an enormous number of eggs 
are destroyed. There is, therefore, a possibility 
of seriously diminishing the supply if a wholesale 
slaughter takes place when the fish come in from 
the sea. If they were taken after the eggs are 
deposited it would be another matter ; but this is 
never the case. 

These salmon are of three different varie- 
ties, called, respectively, the silver salmon, the 
" hump-backed " salmon, and the " garboosh." 
The weight of a full-grown salmon is from eigh- 
teen to twenty-five pounds. There is in the rivers 
another fish called the salmon-trout. It has a 
dark-green back, with vivid pink spots, and it is 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 61 

a most delicious article of food. The little lakes 
in the tundra also contain a fish somewhat resem- 
bling the pickerel, which the natives catch in 
traps. These are set in the little creeks leading 
from the tundra lakes. They are cylindrical bas- 
kets, five feet long and three feet wide, and are 
set in an opening in a dam built, for the purpose, 
of reeds and stakes. Often as many as a dozen 
fish are taken from the traps at a single catch. 
At the time when the salmon are running, hun- 
dreds of sea-dogs (hair-seal) are attracted to the 
mouth of the river by the smell of dead fish. 
As we went in from our steamer, they kept lift- 
ing their heads from the water all about us, 
and afforded some good shooting. The natives 
take them in huge nets made of walrus thongs 
with a mesh of six inches or more. A good 
haul may net as many as thirty of these big 
fellows, which weigh up to four hundred pounds 
apiece. Their fur is of a mottled or speckled 
color. They are in high repute among the na- 
tives, who use their hides for boots. The women 
are able to sew them so as to be perfectly 
water-tight. The blubber is a delicacy which is 
eaten cold. It is also made into oil, and in 
a shallow dish, with a piece of moss for a wick, 
it forms the ordinary lamp of the native. The 
sea-gulls, on their way north to breed, arrive in 
May, and the air is simply filled with them. 



62 IN SEARCH OF A 

They make their nests on rocky declivities or be- 
side the rivers, or even on the open tundra. The 
nesting and hatching of their young comes at 
such a time that it just matches the running of the 
salmon, which is very convenient. The young 
mature very quickly. When newly hatched they 
are gray. When they come back the following 
season only their wings are gray, the body being 
white. The egg harvest is a very important one 
to the natives, who preserve the eggs by burying 
them in the ground on the north side of a hill 
where there is perpetual frost. Besides the gulls, 
there are countless ducks, geese, and snipe. 
These last often fly in such dense flocks that the 
boys stand and throw clubs among them, and 
bring down half a dozen at a throw. These 
youngsters are also very skilful with the sling, 
and bag many ducks and geese with this primi- 
tive weapon. I have seen a boy bring down 
a single goose with one of these slings, though the 
general rule is to throw into a flock on the chance 
of hitting one. Birds of all kinds here find the 
richest feeding-grounds in the world. The sea 
birds, in countless numbers, feed upon the salmon, 
while the insectivorous birds have only to open 
their mouths to have them filled. At this season 
the ground is quite covered with berries, which 
have been preserved all winter under the snow. 
Among these are cranberries, blueberries, and 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 63 

huckleberries. When the birds arrive in the 
spring they are generally poor, but ten days suf- 
fice, on this rich fare, to make them fat. An 
hour's stroll is enough to use up all the gun-shells 
one can conveniently carry, and to bag more 
game than one can bring home. The hunter has 
only to sit down in a " goose lane " or behind a 
blind of some sort, and shoot birds right and left. 
The few merchants who reside in these trading 
posts kill large quantities of birds in the season, 
and keep them in cold storage, which can be found 
almost anywhere a few feet below the surface 
of the ground. The natives, as a rule, are too 
poor to own shot-guns, and so do not profit 
largely by this generous supply of feathered 
game. 



CHAPTER V 

THE TOWN OF GHIJIGA 

The sacred icon and the sewing-machine both in evidence 
— The native " process of getting married " — Mrs. 
Braggin's piano — American pack-saddles and Russian 
obstinacy — Theodosia Chrisoffsky and his sixty descen- 
dants. 

WHEN we reached the shore, or as near the 
shore as the shallowness of the water would 
permit, a crowd of natives and half-castes waded 
out and offered their backs to convey us to dry 
ground. There we found two Russian officers in 
uniform and twelve Cossacks, besides a hundred 
or more of the villagers. The magistrate and his 
assistant, with the aid of twenty Cossacks, govern 
a section of territory as large as Texas and New 
Mexico combined. The magistrate led us to his 
house, a log structure, one story high, with five 
large rooms. No carpets adorned the floor, which 
was spotlessly clean. On the wall hung the pic- 
tures of the Czar and Czarina, while in the corner, 
of course, hung the sacred icon. One noticeable 
feature was a Singer sewing-machine. The mag- 

64 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 67 

istrate's wife lives here with him and looks after 
their modest family of thirteen children. 

It was now four o'clock in the morning, but the 
family were astir. The samovar was brought in, 
and over hot tea and buns we speedily became ac- 
quainted. The magistrate is an important man 
in Ghijiga, and I found him to be a highly edu- 
cated gentleman, speaking French and German 
fluently, but not English. He examined my pa- 
pers, and, with the aid of the supercargo, who in- 
terpreted for me, I told him the purpose of my 
visit. He made me entirely welcome, and told me 
that he had received orders from the Governor- 
general in Vladivostok to aid me in every way 
possible. And he assured me he would gladly 
do so. 

My first object was to reach the town of Ghi- 
jiga, which lay twenty-five miles up the river. 
Here I intended to make my headquarters while 
I explored the country inland and about the head 
of the Okhotsk Sea. The magistrate immediately 
gave orders that a boat be gotten ready to take me 
up the river, and five Cossacks were detailed to 
haul at the tow-line. 

After a hearty breakfast of salmon, reindeer 
meat, and other good things, we embarked and 
started up-stream. The boat was probably the 
worst-shaped craft ever constructed. It was 
made by hollowing out an eighteen-foot log, 



68 IN SEARCH OF A 

after which side boards were attached. As it 
drew fully twelve inches of water and was very 
cranky, one could scarcely recommend it for river 
travel. I afterward built three boats which 
would carry double the weight of cargo, and 
which drew only four inches. 

We rowed up-stream a few miles in a north- 
westerly direction until we reached the limit of 
tide-water, and the stream suddenly grew shal- 
low. The banks were covered with a dense 
growth of bushes, which at some places attained 
a height of twenty feet, but there was no large 
timber near at hand. With my field-glasses I 
saw some fairly heavy timber on the mountain- 
sides inland. The general aspect of the country 
was exceedingly rough. The banks of the river 
showed outcroppings of slate, striking east and 
west, with a pitch to the south of forty-five de- 
grees. To the southwest, about ten miles away, 
I saw a long, low range of hills, perhaps a thou- 
sand feet high. The highest point in this range is 
called Babuska, which is the Russian for " grand- 
mother." 

As we approached the shallows the water be- 
came so swift that we could no longer row, where- 
upon four of the Cossacks jumped out of the 
boat into the icy water. Putting over their shoul- 
.ders a kind of harness made of walrus hide, to 
which was attached a rope of the same material 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 69 

one hundred feet long, they began towing. The 
fifth Cossack held the steering-oar. The shore 
was too heavily wooded to admit of using it as a 
tow-path, and so the poor fellows had to wade in 
the water. Frequently, the boat would ground 
on the shallows, and then they would patiently 
come back and haul us over the obstruction. At 
noon we landed, built a roaring fire, and imbibed 
unknown quantities of tea along with our lunch. 
Taking to the water again, we kept steadily, if 
slowly, on until seven o'clock, when, suddenly 
turning a sharp bend, we saw on the hillside, on 
the left bank, the green spires of a Russian 
church around which were grouped about fifty 
houses. I noticed that not a single house had a 
window on the north side. The severe winds 
from the north drive all the snow away from that 
side of the houses and pile it up against the win- 
dows on the south side, so that they are often 
buried twelve or fifteen feet deep. Some of 
the people are too lazy to dig this away and 
so have to remain in comparative darkness; 
but as the days are only a couple of hours 
long in mid-winter, it does not make so much 
difference. 

As we neared the landing all the village, ex- 
cept such portion as had met the steamer at the 
mouth of the river, came down en masse to greet 
us — dogs, children, and all. They gave us a 



70 IN SEARCH OF A 

hearty drosty, or " How do you do? " and treated 
us most hospitably. 

We pitched our tent on a grassy slope near the 
water and made preparations for supper. As I 
was bending over, busy with my work, I was 
startled by a hearty slap on the shoulder and the 
true Yankee intonation, " Well, friend, what are 
you doing in this neck of the woods? ' I turned 
quickly and saw before me a stout, good-natured, 
smiling American. I learned that he was a Mr. 
Powers, manager of the Russian Trading Com- 
pany, which had a station at this point. He had 
arrived a few days before in the company's 
steamer, the KotiCj and had brought with him a 
Russian- American as clerk. The latter was in 
process of being married to the daughter of a 
Mrs. Braggin, the capable agent of the Russian 
Fur Company at that point. I say he was in 
process of being married ; for, although the cere- 
mony had begun the day before, it would be sev- 
eral days yet before it would be completed. They 
literally dragged me up to the house, although 
I pointed in dismay at my disreputable suit of 
khaki. I was too late for the church service, 
but was just in time for the more substantial part 
of the festivities. 

After the service in the church the villagers 
gather at the bride's house and spend the balance 
of the day in feasting, amid the most uproarious 



& 



3 

o 

1=1 

ft 

o 







SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 73 

mirth. The second day finishes this act of the 
play, but on the third and fourth days the bride 
and groom make the round of the village, feast- 
ing everywhere. It was on the second day that 
we arrived, and before the day was over the 
groom had gorged himself about to the limit ; and 
before the next two days had gone he confided to 
me the fact that if he had known how much he 
would be forced to eat, he would have hesitated 
before crossing the threshold of matrimony. 

Mrs. Braggin's drawing-room boasted an an- 
tiquated upright piano, that had long passed its 
prime, but was in fairly good tune for such a 
corner of the world. In the course of the even- 
ing, as the fun was growing fast and furious, and 
there seemed to be no one to play the instrument, 
I sat down and struck up the "Washington Post" 
march ; but before I had played many bars, I was 
dismayed to find that the merriment had sud- 
denly ceased and the whole company were stand- 
ing in perfect silence, as if rooted to the spot. 
When I finished nothing would suffice but that 
I should exhaust my slender repertory, and then 
repeat it all again and again. Evidently, many 
of those rough but kindly people had never heard 
anything like it in their lives, and, as the Russian 
is musical to his heart's core, I felt pleased to have 
added my mite to the evening's entertainment. 

After the four days of feasting, we descended 



74 IN SEARCH OF A 

to the plane of the ordinary. By the aid of Mr. 
Powers I secured a vacant log hut, where I be- 
stowed my various goods and appointed old An- 
drew as steward, making arrangements for him 
to board at Mrs. Braggin's. Some of the native 
women were easily induced to fit me out with a 
suit of buckskin which I should require in travel- 
ing about the country. In this whole district 
there were but twelve horses. They were Irkutsk 
ponies, shaggy fellows, about fourteen hands 
high. They were very hardy animals, and could 
shift for themselves both summer and winter. In 
the winter they paw down through the snow until 
they reach the dead grass. 

After nearly exhausting my powers of persua- 
sion, and paying a round sum, I secured six 
of these horses. I hired a competent Russian 
guide and prepared to take my first trip across 
the tundra, to examine a locality where the Rus- 
sians had reported that gold had been discovered 
a few years before. With my horses came little 
Russian pack-saddles or rather combinations of 
pack- and riding-saddles. They have the faculty 
of turning with their loads about once an hour all 
day long. This I had discovered at Petropaul- 
ovsk, but when I expressed my determination to 
use my American pack-saddles, I found myself 
confronted by the opposition of Russians and 
natives alike. They viewed my saddles with 



o 






p 

o 
n 
o 

en 

cr 



3 
CD 

>— • 

pa 

P- 



S3 




SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 77 

amusement and contempt. The double cinches 
and the breast and back cinches puzzled them 
completely, and they refused to have anything to 
do with them. As fast as my Koreans would get 
the packs on, the Russians would take them off 
when our backs were turned. I soon discovered 
that the Russians were determined to use their 
own saddles, and no argument would move them. 
I unbuckled a Russian saddle and threw it to the 
ground, substituting one of my own for it. I 
turned to a second horse to do likewise, when, 
looking over my shoulder, I saw a Russian qui- 
etly unfastening the first. Stepping up to him, 
I gave him a slap with the open hand on the jaw. 
Instantly, the whole matter assumed a new as- 
pect. I was not to be trifled with. They saw it. 
Their objections were at once withdrawn, and 
never after that did I have occasion to strike a 
man. 

My guide was an old man of sixty-five, but a 
noted sledge-driver and hunter. His name was 
Theodosia Chrisoffsky, a half-caste. He was a 
dried-up and wizened old man, but I found him 
as active as a youth of twenty. He was always 
the first up in the morning, and the last to bed at 
night. He owned the best dogs in northeastern 
Siberia, and could get more work out of a dog- 
team than any other man. His reputation 
reached from the Okhotsk Sea to the Arctic 



78 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 

Ocean, and he was considered among the dog-men 
to be about the wealthiest of his class. He owned 
a hundred dogs, valued at from three to one hun- 
dred roubles each. Perhaps ten of them were 
worth the maximum price, and the rest averaged 
about ten roubles apiece. He also owned five 
horses. Not the least part of his wealth were 
twelve strapping sons and daughters, all of 
whom, with their wives and husbands, lived under 
the paternal roof — or, rather, under a clump of 
paternal roofs. There were some sixty souls in 
all, and they formed a little village by themselves 
about twenty miles up the river from Ghijiga. 

I had to load the horses very light on account 
of the marshy condition of the tundra. Each 
pack was a hundred pounds only. On this trip I 
took only one of my Koreans. 



CHAPTER VI 

OFF FOR THE TUNDRA — A NATIVE FAMILY 

Hard traveling — The native women — A mongrel race — 
Chrisoff sky's home and family and their ideas of domestic 
economy — Boiled fish-eyes a native delicacy — Prospecting 
along the Ghijiga. 

WE set out at nine o'clock on the sixth of 
September. Fortunately for us, the sharp 
frosts had already killed off all the mosquitos. 
The path through the tundra was very difficult. 
We stepped from tuft to tuft of moss, between 
which were deep mud and slush. When we could 
keep in the river-bed, where it was dry, we had 
tolerably good going ; so we kept as near the river 
as possible. Often I would have to mount the 
back of my faithful Kim to cross some tributary 
of the main stream. We were continually wet to 
the knee or higher, and were tired, muddy, and 
bedraggled beyond belief. 

Toward night, we saw the welcome smoke 
from the village of the Chrisoffskys. A crowd 
of small urchins came running out to greet their 
grandfather, and soon we were in the midst of 
the village. The old gentleman, my guide, took 

79 



80 IN SEARCH OF A 

my hand and led me into his house, where, after 
I had kissed every one (drawing the line at the 
men), one of the daughters sat down on the 
floor, unlaced my boots, took off my wet socks, 
and replaced them by soft, fur-lined deerskin 
boots. She then looked my boots over very care- 
fully, and finding a little seam ripped, she got 
out a deer-sinew and sewed it up. All my men 
were similarly attended to. The boots were then 
hung up to dry. In the morning, they would 
have to be oiled. This attention to the foot-gear 
is an essential part of the etiquette of this people. 
Any stitch that is to be taken must be attended to 
before the boot is dry and stiff. Even here the 
samovar reigned supreme. The women were 
strong, buxom creatures, and they wore loose 
calico gowns of gaudy colors. The hair, which is 
never luxuriant in the women of the North, was 
put up in two slender braids crossed at the back 
and brought around to the front of the head and 
tied up. Their complexions were very dark, al- 
most like that of a North American Indian. 
Most of them had very fine teeth. 

These people are of a mongrel race, having a 
mixture of Korak, Tunguse, and Russian blood. 
Chrisoffsky himself was one fourth Russian. 
They speak a dialect that is as mixed as their 
blood ; for it is a conglomerate of Korak, Tun- 
guse and Russian. They are very prolific, six 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 83 

and eight children being considered a small 
family. The death-rate among them is very high, 
and, as might be expected, pulmonary diseases 
are responsible for a very large proportion of the 
deaths. 

This house into which I had come as guest con- 
sisted of a kitchen, a small living-room, and a tiny 
bedroom. The old gentleman's wife was fifty- 
five years old, and was still nursing her fifteenth 
child, which, at night, was swung from the ceil- 
ing, while the father and mother occupied a nar- 
row bed. Three of the smaller children slept on 
the floor beneath the bed. The room was eight 
feet long and six feet wide. The fireplace in the 
living-room was a huge stone oven, which pro- 
jected through the partition into the bedroom. 
Every evening its capacious maw was filled with 
logs, and this insured heat in the heavy stone 
body of the stove for at least twenty-four hours. 
In the mouth of this oven the kettles were hung. 
This house was far above the average; for, in 
truth, there were only twelve others as good in the 
whole immense district. 

For dinner, the first course was a startling one. 
It consisted of a huge bowl of boiled fish-eyes. 
This is considered a great delicacy by the natives 
of the far North. When the dish was set before 
me, and I saw a hundred eyes glaring at me from 
all directions and at all angles, cross, squint, and 



84 IN SEARCH OF A 

wall, it simply took my appetite away. I had to 
turn them down, so that the pupil was not visible, 
before I could attack them. The old gentleman 
and I ate alone, the rest of the family not being 
allowed to sit down with us. This was eminently 
satisfactory to me, as we ate from the same dish ; 
in fact, I could have dispensed with my host too. 
The second dish consisted of fish-heads. I found 
on these a sort of gelatin or cartilage that was 
very good eating. Then came a kind of cake, 
fried in seal-oil, of which the less said the better. 
For dessert, we had a dish of yagada, which is 
much like our raspberry, except that it is yellow 
and rather acid. 

The rest of the family, together with my men, 
squatted on the floor of the kitchen, and ate from 
tables a foot high by three feet square. In the 
center of each table was set a large bowl of a kind 
of fish-chowder. Each person wielded a spoon 
made from the horn of the mountain sheep, and 
held in the left hand a piece of black bread. 
After dinner they all had tea. No sugar is put 
in the tea, but a small lump is given to each per- 
son, and he nibbles it as he sips his tea. It is the 
height of impoliteness to ask for a second piece 
of sugar. Many of these people drink as many as 
sixty cups of tea in a single day. They seldom, 
if ever, drink water. 

We sat and talked a couple of hours over the 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 85 

samovar, and then the blankets were spread for 
the night. The large room was reserved for me. 
Three huge bearskins were first placed on the 
floor, and then my blankets were spread over 
them. It made a luxurious bed, and quite free 
from vermin; for a bedbug will never approach 
a bearskin. In the kitchen, I fear, they were 
packed like sardines. They slept on deerskins 
or bearskins, anything that came handy being 
used for a covering. Curiously enough, these 
people all prefer to sleep on a steep incline, and 
to secure this position they use heavy pillows or 
bolsters. Before retiring, each person came into 
my room and bowed and crossed himself before 
the icon in the corner. I had to shake hands with 
them all, and kiss the children, which operation I 
generally performed on the forehead, as hand- 
kerchiefs are unknown luxuries in that country. 
The next morning, while partaking of a sort 
of French breakfast of bread, tea, and sugar, I 
noticed that my party were the only ones that 
made use of a comb and brush. When I stepped 
outside the door to clean my teeth, I was sur- 
rounded by twenty or more, who had come to wit- 
ness this strange operation. They were brim- 
ming over with laughter. The tooth-brush was 
passed around from hand to hand, and I had to 
keep a sharp lookout, lest some of them tried it 
themselves. 



86 IN SEARCH OF A 

Finally, I lined them all up to take their pho- 
tograph. I placed my camera on the ground, and 
turned to direct them how to stand. I had no 
need to ask them to look pleasant, for they were 
all on a broad grin. I was at a loss to account 
for their mirth till I turned and saw that the vil- 
lage dogs were treating my camera in a charac- 
teristically canine fashion. Then it was I who 
needed to be told to look pleasant. 

At last we were on the road again. For the 
first five miles our way led up the bed of the river, 
sometimes in the water, and sometimes on the 
bank in grass as high as the horses' shoulders. 
When, at last, we came out on to the tundra, to 
the north, a hundred and fifty miles away, I 
could see the tops of the mountains among which 
the Ghijiga River has its source. They are about 
ten thousand feet high. To the northeast, about 
sixty miles away, I could see the foothills of a 
range of mountains in which rises the Avecko 
River, which enters the Okhotsk Sea within a mile 
of the mouth of the Ghijiga. Reaching the sum- 
mit of the water-shed between the two rivers, I 
discovered that between me and these foothills the 
land was low and abounded in tundra lakes. To 
avoid these, I bore to the left and kept on the 
summit of the water-shed. By noon we had cov- 
ered only eight miles. We halted for dinner, un- 
packed the horses, and turned them out to feed 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 89 

upon the rich grass while we made our dinner of 
fish, bread, and other viands which we had 
brought ready prepared from the house. At 
eight that night we camped on a " tundra island," 
a slight rise in the general flatness on which grew 
a few tamarack trees. As the nights were now 
very cold, we built a roaring fire. My koklanka, 
or great fur coat, with its hood, now proved its 
utility. After supper, which consisted of several 
brace of fat ptarmigan, brought down that after- 
noon with my shotgun, each man took his deer- 
skin and spread it on a pile of elastic tamarack 
boughs. With our feet shod in dry fur boots, 
with our koklankas about us and great pillows 
under our heads, we slept as soundly and as com- 
fortably as one could desire. 

In the morning we found ourselves covered 
with white frost. The start was very difficult, for 
an all-day tramp in the bog the day before had 
made our joints stiff. For the first half hour, 
walking was so painful that I found myself fre- 
quently counting the steps between objects along 
the way. But after a time the stiffness wore off, 
and I began to find the pace of the horses too 
slow. When at last we came to higher ground 
and better going, I examined the streams for 
gold. The pan showed several " small colors," 
for we were in a granite country, but as yet there 
were no signs of any gold-bearing float rock. 






90 IN SEARCH OF A 

On the thirteenth day we arrived at our desti- 
nation which was a certain creek indicated by a 
Russian engineer named Bugdanovitch. I liked 
the looks of the country very much. The creeks 
were filled with quartz float. So I determined to 
stop here two or three weeks and explore the ad- 
jacent hills and creeks for gold. At this point my 
guide's contract expired and I reluctantly let him 
go, as well as five of the six horses. I was thus 
left in the wilderness with Kim and Alek. 

I pitched camp in a favorable place and went 
to work in good spirits. I thoroughly prospected 
the hills and ravines and made repeated trials of 
the creek beds, but though I found more or less 
show of gold, I was at last obliged to confess that 
there was nothing worth working. 

This being the case, it behooved me to be on 
my way back to headquarters at Ghijiga. I 
thought there could be no difficulty about it, as 
the water all flowed in one direction. I did not 
want to go back by the way we had come. I sus- 
pected that there was a shorter way, and that the 
guide had purposely brought me a longer dis- 
tance in order to secure more pay. So I decided 
to make a " bee line " for Ghijiga. Already we 
had had a slight flurry of snow, which had made 
me a trifle uneasy. We had only thirty days' pro- 
visions with us, and it would not do to be snowed 
in. As we had only one horse, we could not, of 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 91 

course, take back with us all our camp equipage, 
so I left Alek at the camp and started out for 
Ghijiga with Kim and our one horse, intending 
to send back dog-sledges for the things. A more 
timid man than Alek would have hesitated before 
consenting to be left behind in this fashion, but 
he bore up bravely and in good cheer sent us off. 



CHAPTER VII 

TUNGUSE AND KORAK HOSPITALITY, 

My Korak host — Bear ! \ 9 — I shoot my first arctic fox — 
My Tunguse guide — Twenty-two persons sleep in a 
twelve-foot tent — Tunguse family prayers — The advent 
of Howka — ChrisofFsky once more. 

I STRUCK what I thought to be a straight 
course toward our destination. The going was 
much better than it had been a few weeks before, 
because of the hard frost which held everything 
solid till ten o'clock in the morning. Then the 
sun would melt the ice and make it very hard to 
travel; for the broken ice would cut our boots, 
which meant wet feet for the rest of the day. 

On the second day we struck a small water- 
course and saw many signs of reindeer. Soon we 
found a tiny trail, and, following it down the val- 
ley, I turned around a bend in the creek, and saw 
before me six large deerskin tents, while on the 
surrounding hillsides were hundreds of reindeer. 
As we neared the village a dozen curs came rush- 
ing out; some of them were hobbled so as to 
prevent their chasing the deer. They attacked us 
savagely, as is the custom of these ugly little mon- 

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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 95 

grels. We had to make a counter attack with 
stones to keep them off. The noise aroused the 
natives, who hurried out and received us with the 
hospitable " drosty." 

These people were pure Koraks, 1 a little under 
the medium size, in which they resemble the Japa- 
nese. I was led into the largest of the tents, and 
a wooden bowl containing boiled reindeer meat 
was placed before me. To the delight of my 
host, I went to my pack and produced some tea. 
I also displayed some sugar and black bread, 
which firmly established me in their good graces. 
I was greatly surprised to see my host bring out 
a box, from which he produced half a dozen china 
cups, heavily ornamented with gilt, and bearing 
such legends as " God Bless Our Home," " To 
Father," and "Merry Christmas." He must have 
secured them from an American whaling vessel 
on one of his annual trips to the coast. So, in the 
midst of this wilderness, I drank my tea from a 
fine mustache cup, originally designed to make 
the recipient " Remember Me." These cups were 
the heirloom of the family, and were brought out 
only on state occasions. 

When tea was finished I produced some to- 
bacco and filled my pipe and that of my host, 
much to his gratification. The sequel was em- 

1 Sometimes spelled Koriaks or Koryakes. Korak is given the 
preference as being more accurately the phonetic spelling. 



96 IX SEARCH OF A 

barrassing; for when our pipes were smoked out 
he insisted on filling them again with his own to- 
bacco. This was rough on me, but I set my teeth 
on the pipe-stem and bravely went through with 
it to the end. I can say nothing worse of it than 
that it was as bad as a cheap American cigarette. 

My host was a genial old fellow, and later on 
he became my bosom friend. He was the wealth- 
iest man in his district, and owned upward of ten 
thousand reindeer. Of course I had great diffi- 
cultv in talking to him, but bv a liberal use of 
signs, I made him understand where I had come 
from, and that I would like to have him kill some 
reindeer and carry them back to the camp where 
I had left Alek, and, if possible, bring him to 
this village. I made a rough sketch of the posi- 
tion of the camp, and he understood perfectly, as 
shown by the fact that he carried out my instruc- 
tions to the letter on the next day. I asked him 
the way to Ghijiga and pointed in the direction 
that I had supposed it lay. This was approxi- 
mately correct, but he promised to give me a 
guide to take me to town. 

That evening there was another surprise in store 
for me. They served for supper the boiled flesh 
of unborn reindeer. It is accounted a specially 
choice viand among the Koraks. This seemed 
worse than smoking the old man's tobacco, but I 
laid aside all squeamishness and found that, after 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 97 

all, it was a palatable dish. My bed that night 
was a pile of skins, a foot deep, in a corner of the 
tent. 

The next morning we set out with our guide, 
a mere boy dressed in a close-fitting suit of brown 
buckskin. He carried in his hand an ugly looking 
bear spear with a blade a foot long and sharpened 
on both edges. It was artistically inlaid with 
copper scroll-work and was a fine example of 
genuine Korak art. The shaft was a good eight 
feet long. All day we pushed ahead without ad- 
venture or misadventure until about seven o'clock 
in the evening, when, as we were passing down a 
gentle incline through thick bushes, with the 
Korak guide in the lead and I behind, my notice 
was attracted by a mound of fresh earth a few 
steps from the path. I went to investigate, and 
was greeted by a terrific roar. I brought my gun 
to position and cocked both barrels, but could see 
nothing beyond a tremendous shaking of the 
bushes. Looking around, I saw the little guide 
with his eyes blazing and his spear in readiness 
for an attack. He exclaimed " Medvait! " which 
in Russian means " bear." As my gun was 
loaded only with bird shot, I decided that discre- 
tion was the better part of valor, and slowly 
backed out of the dense undergrowth. When I 
reached the open, whatever remnant of hunting 
instinct a hard day's tramp had left in me asserted 



98 IN SEARCH OF A 

itself. Hastily reloading my gun with shells 
loaded with buckshot, I circled around the bushes 
to get a shot at the fellow. I saw where the 
bushes were being beaten down by his hasty re- 
treat, but could not catch sight of the brute. I 
sent a charge of buckshot after him as an induce- 
ment to come out and show himself, but the argu- 
ment worked just the other way, and he made off 
at his best speed. The strangest thing about the 
whole affair was that we had passed within ten 
feet of the animal without the horse showing any 
signs of uneasiness. Nothing will so frighten a 
horse as the smell of a bear. But I learned after- 
ward that this particular horse was afraid of no- 
thing. I had named him " Bill," and we had 
many a hard day together. 

Night was now upon us, and so we made our 
camp in some dry grass beside a brook. The 
guide slept on a single deerskin, with no covering 
but the clothes he wore. In the morning I as- 
cended a little knoll, and with my glasses could 
see a mountain near the town of Ghijiga, so the 
guide left me, and went back. That afternoon 
I killed my first arctic fox. The little fellow, 
about as large as a coyote, came running toward 
us. We stopped short, and the inquisitive animal 
approached to within a hundred feet and paused 
to inspect us. I killed him with a ball through 
the chest. 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 101 

That night as Kim and I sat beside a roaring 
fire of birch logs a little animal leaped suddenly 
into the firelight opposite. It was a young arctic 
fox, the prettiest sight I have ever seen. He 
would jump to one side and then the other, and 
crouch, and strike attitudes like a kitten at play. 
Then he would lift his nose in the air and sniff this 
way and that, raising one of his paws meanwhile. 
The thought of killing the little thing would never 
have entered my head if Kim, the matter-of-fact, 
had not whispered, " Strelite," which means 
" shoot." Instinctively my hand crept toward 
my gun, but the little fox saw the movement 
and was gone like a flash. I was heartily glad 
of it, too. 

In this district are to be found almost all the 
different varieties of foxes — the red, fiery, blue, 
chestnut, black, and white. But it should be re- 
membered that, with the exception of the white 
and red, these are not exactly different species. 
For instance, a black fox may be found in a litter 
of the common red fox in any country. He is 
simply a freak of nature, just as one might find 
a black kitten among a litter of gray ones. The 
foxes are caught by poison or traps. There are 
two kinds of traps, one of which seizes the ani- 
mal by a leg or around the neck, and the other is 
made with a bow and arrow so set that as the fox 
goes along the path the slightest touch of the foot 

fLofC. 



102 IN SEARCH OF A 

will discharge the arrow. Formerly these animals 
were so common that when the dogs were fed the 
foxes would come and try to steal part of the 
food, and had to be driven away with clubs. At 
that time the natives valued their pelts hardly 
more than dogskins, but as the foreign demand 
increased the foxes became worth catching. 

We had four days of hard work traveling 
across the tundra, which was frozen hard in the 
morning, but was soft in the afternoon. Many 
times a day we were up to the waist in the mud 
and water, working to get Bill out of the mire. 
On the fourth day, just as night fell, we struck 
the trail between Ghijiga and old Chrisoffsky's 
little hamlet. I did not know just how far we 
were from the village, and as we were tired out we 
camped for the night. In the morning, what was 
our chagrin to find that we were within a quarter 
of a mile of Ghijiga. Bill doubtless knew, and 
if he could have talked he would have saved us 
one night in the open. 

The days now grew rapidly colder, with flurries 
of snow that heralded the coming of winter. As 
it was now possible to use dog-sleds, I engaged 
some of the natives to go to the Korak village 
and bring down my camping outfit, which I 
thought must long since have arrived at that 
place. At this season the dogs could travel only 
at night, when the ground was hard, but even so 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 103 

they covered between thirty and forty miles a day 
without difficulty. 

Meanwhile I loaded up Bill with all he could 
carry, and, in company with Kim, started out to 
find the head waters of the Turumcha River, 
where gold was reported to have been discovered. 
This trail led west from Ghijiga, but it was 
first necessary to go up the valley of the Ghijiga 
a short distance before crossing over into the other 
valley. I had, therefore, to pass ChrisofFsky's 
place again. We arrived there the first evening 
and received a hearty welcome. I tried to get the 
old gentleman to go with me and to furnish horses 
and dogs, but he could do neither. His dogs were 
engaged by the trading company on the coast, 
and his horses were in too poor a condition to un- 
dertake the journey which I contemplated. So 
I was reduced to the melancholy necessity of 
walking, Bill carrying our camp outfit. 

As I was about to start, a native Tunguse ar- 
rived at ChrisofFsky's. He was the first of that 
tribe that I had seen. Chrisoffsky told me that 
this young man was going the same road as I, and 
that his yourta, or hut, was near the stream along 
which I intended to prospect. He willingly 
agreed to act as my guide at a wage of one brick 
of tea a day. He answered to the euphonious 
name of Fronyo. He was five feet high and 
weighed only one hundred and ten pounds, but 



104 IN SEARCH OF A 

was prodigiously strong and wiry. He was 
dressed in old tanned buckskin, with a gaudy 
apron trimmed with beads in geometric patterns 
and with a fringe. According to the custom of 
his tribe, he wore a long, ugly knife strapped to 
his thigh, the point reaching to the knee, while 
the handle lay at the hip. These knives are fash- 
ioned by the Koraks, who sell them to the Tun- 
guses. On his feet were moccasins with seal-hide 
soles. 

I found that he could speak a little broken Rus- 
sian, and as I had acquired a few Russian ex- 
pressions we got along famously. So we set out, 
Fronyo leading off with his long bear spear but 
no fire-arms. It was a straight three days' trip 
across the tundra, and without special incident. 
At night we arrived in good season at a skin 
yourta on the banks of a tributary of the Ghijiga. 
On our approach a dozen dogs rushed out with 
the full intention of tearing us to pieces, but 
changed their minds when they found that we 
were equally determined to defend ourselves. 
The dogs were followed by the denizens of the 
place, ten or twelve in number, including Fron- 
yo's father, mother, brothers, and sisters. 

Their greeting consisted in grasping right 
hands, throwing out the lips as far as possible and 
touching the two cheeks and lips of the friend. I 
pretended ignorance of the ceremony. In truth, 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 107 

they were so unconscionably dirty that it was im- 
possible to tell the color of their skin, and besides, 
I could not distinguish the men from the women. 
But I learned later that the dress of the two sexes 
does differ slightly, for the women have a little 
fringe about the bottom of the skirt, which is split 
up the back precisely like our frock-coats. 

The flap of the tent was drawn aside and we 
crept in, only to find ourselves buried in a dense 
cloud of smoke, which came from an open fire 
burning in the middle of the tent, and which es- 
caped through a hole at the top, as in the wigwam 
of the North American Indian. On sitting down, 
I discovered that near the ground the air was com- 
paratively clear. Because of this smoke, the na- 
tives suffer severely from sore eyes. 

Among the Tunguses the guest is always sup- 
posed to provide the tea, so I had Kim bring out 
a brick, and it was brewed and served with bread 
and sugar. For supper I had a splendid salmon- 
trout spitted before the fire, and it seemed the 
most delicious morsel I had ever tasted. Then we 
lighted our pipes and took our ease. I noticed 
that the women carried pipes. The little brass 
pipe-bowls are bought from the Russian traders 
and are fitted with reed stems about eight inches 
long. Some of the pipe-stems were made of two 
pieces of wood grooved down the center and then 
bound together with deer thong. They mix 



108 IN SEARCH OF A 

Manchu tobacco with the dried inner bark of the 
fir tree. 

When it came time to retire, several logs were 
added to the fire in the center of the tent, the 
deerskins were spread, and each lay down in the 
clothes he or she had worn all day. The tent 
was twelve feet in diameter, and in that space 
twenty-two persons slept ; three of them were in- 
fants who were swung from the top and just 
below the smoke line. Indeed we lay like matches 
in a box, and certain grave misgivings I had rela- 
tive to living mementoes of the occasion were 
later verified. 

But before retiring I witnessed a scene that 
would have put to shame not a few of the homes 
in America. These Tunguses are, many of them, 
adherents of the Greek Church. There was an 
icon in the tent, and before and after eating they 
crossed themselves before it. Now as we were 
about to retire the family shook hands and kissed 
one another. They came and shook my hand and 
said, " Pleasant sleep." Then the old man turned 
his face upward, closed his eyes and said, " O 
God, do not forget our home to-night." Consid- 
ering the surroundings, it was the most impres- 
sive thing I had ever witnessed. 

On our departure the next day we made the old 
people happy with the gift of several bricks of 
tea. Snow had fallen during the night to the 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 109 

depth of six inches. Winter was on us in full 
force. As we left we were followed from the 
yourta by a beautiful black dog the size of a fox. 
I was to become well acquainted with him later. 
We camped that night on the banks of the Tu- 
rumcha where I was to commence my work. The 
stream was only sixty feet wide, but it was swift 
and turgid and filled with floating ice. 

The next morning we were obliged to ford it; 
so, tying a lariat about Bill's neck and leaving the 
end of it in Kim's hands, I mounted and forced 
the horse into the water. At the deepest point 
it came well up to his shoulders and he found it 
hard to keep his feet, but we got safely over. 
Kim pulled the horse back by the lariat and the 
guide came across. That long-suffering brute 
had to make four round trips before we and our 
effects were all across the river. When Kim 
started across, the dog began to howl piteously, 
but finally sprang into the water after us. When 
in mid-stream he encountered a floating cake of 
ice. He climbed upon it and was whirled down- 
stream and out of sight. He got across, however, 
and caught up with us two hours later. 

We followed up the bed of the stream, stop- 
ping often to examine it for signs of gold. We 
sunk shafts here and there and panned the gravel 
in the icy water of the stream, always getting a 
few " colors " but nothing of particular interest. 



110 IN SEARCH OF A 

Each night we camped in some sheltered nook, 
often in heavy timber, and our first move always 
was to change our wet boots. One night I spread 
out my deerskin bed, put on my heavy fur coat 
and cap, lay down as usual with the canvas tar- 
paulin over all, and was soon asleep. About four 
o'clock in the morning I felt something warm 
moving at my side. I put out my hand and 
found that it was the black dog which had fol- 
lowed us. We called him Howka. When I 
stirred he offered to leave, but I patted him and 
coaxed him to remain, which he was quite willing 
to do. Afterward I bought him, and for a year 
he was my constant companion. Once, during a 
long period of semi-starvation, he saved my life 
by hunting sea-gulls' nests, from which I took 
the eggs. 

After working my way up to the headwaters 
of the stream without finding gold in paying 
quantities, I determined to cross over the divide 
into another section, but my guide, Fronyo, 
begged me to go one day's trip farther up the 
little brook to a place which he described as 
" white walls with little sparkling points like the 
stars." I said to myself, " Probably quartz with 
sulphurets " (bisulphide of iron) . So on we went 
and came at last to the shiny wall. It proved to 
be a large vein of low grade gold ore crossing 
the brook at right angles. Panning below I 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 113 

found nothing of particular value; so breaking 
off fragments of the rocks we piled them up be- 
side the stream, making a little monument to 
mark the spot, should I wish to revisit it. I ap- 
peared to be now in a mineral country. We went 
on up the brook, panning continually, but no- 
where on the bed-rock found gold in paying 
quantities. 

We had now reached the top of the divide, and 
so crossed over into a district called Toloffka, 
with a stream of the same name, where we spent 
several days. The cold was intense. The ther- 
mometer registered ten degrees below zero. The 
streams were all ice-bound, except where they 
were very swift. The snow was about a foot 
deep, and Bill was faring badly. His only food 
was the tops of the grass that stuck up through 
the snow or that could be found on wind-swept 
places. He was so weak that he could only pack 
sixty pounds, and that with difficulty. All our 
food was gone except rice and tea. Our tobacco 
had long ago given out, and, as a substitute, we 
used brick tea mixed with pine bark. It made a 
smoke — and that was all. The rough work had 
destroyed my boots. I had used one pair to mend 
the soles of the other. My guide made a needle 
of a fish bone, and with thread from the fiber of 
a vine sewed the soles on for me. It was evi- 
dently time for us to be turning our faces home- 



114 IN SEARCH OF A 

ward. We went straight for the yourta where 
Fronyo's family lived, and of course made it in 
far less time than it had taken us to come. I 
found that the whole trip had covered just one 
month. Bill came very near giving out on the 
home trip, but by a heroic effort pulled through 
and was rewarded at the journey's end by get- 
ting all the provender he could stow away. 

As Bill had to carry the pack and as my feet 
were not in the best condition, Fronyo proposed 
that I ride to Ghijiga on a reindeer. A fine big 
bull of about five hundred pounds was brought 
out and I looked him over. I had some misgiv- 
ings, but at last decided to accept the offer. The 
saddle was made with reindeer bones for a foun- 
dation. These were securely bound together, 
padded with moss, and covered with rawhide. 
The antlers of the deer had a spread of five feet, 
and there were so many prongs that I never tried 
to count them. Much to my surprise, I found 
that the motion of my steed was a smooth and 
gliding one, even more comfortable than the gait 
of a single-footer. It had taken us three days to 
walk up from ChrisofFsky's to the yourta. It 
took just eight hours to make the same trip in the 
other direction. 

ChrisofFsky's house was on the left bank of the 
stream, while we were on the right. It would 
have been death to the deer to have taken him 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 115 

within scent of the dogs. So I dismounted two 
miles from the house, tethered the deer, and made 
my way in on foot. The stream was not solidly 
frozen, so I fired off my gun and brought out the 
whole settlement. A boat was found, and pres- 
ently I was seated again at old ChrisofFsky's 
fireside. 



CHAPTER VIII 

DOG-SLEDGING AND THE FUR TRADE 

Description of the sledge and its seven pairs of dogs — The 
harness — The useful polka — The start-off a gymnastic 
performance for the driver — Methods of steering and 
avoiding obstructions while going at full speed — Dog- 
trading en route — Dog-fights are plentiful — Prices of 
sable and other skins in the native market — The four 
grades of sables — How they live and what they live on — 
A Russian writer on sable hunting — Days when a native 
would barter eighteen sable skins for an ax. 

I COULD not delay here. The sledge-road 
to Ghijiga was in fine condition, and, hiring 
a team of dogs, I started out the next morning on 
my first sledge-ride. Our team consisted of four- 
teen big, wolflike sledge-dogs with shaggy coats 
and erect pointed ears. Some were white, some 
black, some gray, some red, and some a bluish 
color. The two leaders were a magnificent pair — 
one red, the other blue. They were all fierce- 
looking fellows, but I had no difficulty in stroking 
them, as they like to be petted. The harness con- 
sisted of a breast collar and a belly-band. Lead- 
ing back from the collar, and held in place on the 

116 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 117 

sides by the belly-band, are two thongs, which are 
attached to a ring directly behind the dog. From 
this ring a single thong, three feet in length, at- 
taches the dog to the central tug which draws the 
sledge. Each thong is fastened to a ring on the 
tug by means of a wooden pin three inches long. 
The dogs are always fastened to the tug in pairs. 
The central tug leads forward from the sledge to 
a point between the leading pair of dogs. [Be- 
tween the several pairs is a clear space of about 
eighteen inches. 

The sledge itself, which is called a narta, is a re- 
markable vehicle. It is made of light basswood 
without nails or screws. The parts are bound to- 
gether with walrus thongs. It is admirably 
adapted to survive the hard knocks which it is 
sure to receive. It has just the necessary amount 
of " give " without losing anything in strength. 
The runners are from ten to fourteen feet long 
and two feet apart. They are from three to four 
inches wide and unshod. The bed of the sledge 
is raised ten inches above the runners by means 
of posts at frequent intervals. On each side is a 
railing six inches high, with a thong mesh to pre- 
vent the load from falling off. At about one 
third the distance from the front to the back of 
the sledge is placed a perpendicular bow of stout 
wood, which rises some four feet and a half from 
the ground. The driver sits behind this, and 



118 IN SEARCH OF A 

whenever an obstruction is met with, he steps off 
quickly at the side and pulls the sledge one way 
or the other by means of this bow, which he grasps 
in the right hand. The driver holds a stout steel- 
shod stick five feet in length with a cord attached 
to the end. He can use this polka as a brake by 
putting it between the runners and digging it into 
the ground, or he can anchor the sledge with it 
by driving it perpendicularly into the snow imme- 
diately in front of the sledge and then tying the 
cord to the bow which has been described. When 
this is done the sledge cannot possibly move 
forward. 

Several bearskins were laid in the bed of the 
sledge for me, and a back-rest was made by lash- 
ing together three cross-pieces. I was told to 
keep as far down as possible, as it would lessen 
the probability of capsizing. Before starting, one 
more important piece of work had to be per- 
formed. Chrisoff sky, using the polka as a lever, 
tipped the sledge up at an angle of forty-five de- 
grees, exposing the bottom of one runner, and 
proceeded to scrape it with a knife he always car- 
ried in a sheath at his thigh. Then from under his 
fur coat he drew out a little bottle of water which 
was fastened about his neck with a cord, and wet- 
ting a piece of deer fur as one would wet a 
sponge, he drew it rapidly along the runner, with 
the result that a thin film of ice was formed along 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 121 

its whole length. The other runner was treated 
likewise. This is a very important part of the 
preparation for a sledge-ride. 

While this was going on the dogs were con- 
tinually yelping with excitement and leaping in 
their collars, eager to be off. Old Chrisoffsky 
quieted them with the cry " Chy, chy, chy." The 
old gentleman himself was to be my driver, and I 
mounted and was carefully tucked in by kindly, 
even if dirty, hands, while Chrisoffsky restrained 
the dogs. I said good-by, and settled back to wit- 
ness a marvelous feat of human dexterity on the 
part of the driver, and of almost human intelli- 
gence on the part of the dogs. It was a crisp, cold 
morning. The road was well broken, but the 
difficulty was in getting out of the village with its 
narrow, winding paths to the open tundra where 
the road was straight and easy. 

As Chrisoffsky untied the cord from the bow, 
the alert dogs gave a wild yell, and strained at 
their collars as though they had gone mad. He 
drew out the polka, placed one foot on the run- 
ner, gave the bow a jerk to dislodge the sledge 
from its position in the snow, and shouted, 
" Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk!' : to the impatient dogs. 
They sprang forward together, giving the sledge 
a jerk that nearly threw me overboard, and 
dashed forward at a terrific speed, Chrisoffsky 
still standing on the runner and waving the polka 



122 IN SEARCH OF A 

in his hand. We were off like a shot amid the 
laughter and good-bys of Chrisoffsky's numer- 
ous progeny. The trick was to get the dogs 
around those sharp curves at such a speed without 
upsetting the sledge. The driver by shouting, 
" Put, put, put! " could make them swerve about 
forty-five degrees to the right, and they would 
continue to turn till he stopped ; then they would 
go straight ahead. If he wanted them to turn to 
the left he would give a strong guttural, scraping 
noise that sounded like an intensified German 
" ch," repeated as long as he wished them to con- 
tinue turning. If we met an obstruction he would 
leap off, even when going at full speed, and 
by means of the bow pull or push the sledge free 
from the impending smash, and then leap on 
again as nimbly as a cat, despite his sixty-odd 
years. As we swept out of the village, fol- 
lowed by the shouts of " Doswi dania" (good- 
by), we plunged down into a gully and up the 
other side on to the open tundra, the dogs on the 
dead run. For a time our speed must have been 
nearly that of a greyhound at full stretch. Old 
Chrisoffsky looked back at me and laughed, and 
asked me how I liked it. 

I have ridden a good many kinds of vehicles, 
but for beauty of motion give me a narta with 
fourteen big, wild dogs, and a smooth road. The 
narta goes like a snake, it is so sinuous and adapts 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 123 

itself so perfectly to the irregularities of the 
road. 

After a while the dogs got the " wire edge " 
worked off their enthusiasm and settled down to 
a good steady trot that took us along at the rate 
of seven miles an hour. They worked together 
as smoothly as a machine. When they became 
thirsty, they would lap up the snow beside the 
path. If one of the dogs stops drawing and be- 
gins to shirk, the driver stands up and throws the 
polka at him, hitting him on the head or back, and 
then, by a dexterous motion, pushes the narta to 
one side and recovers the polka as the sledge 
passes it. The dog so warned will probably go 
miles with his head over his shoulder watching to 
see if he is going to be struck again ; and all the 
other dogs, too, keep a weather-eye open. The 
best dogs are always in the lead, and the poorest 
ones back near the driver, where he can manage 
them most easily. 

If a dog refuses to draw, the sledge is stopped 
and the driver, to an accompaniment of very 
choice language, beats the sluggard with the lash 
of the polka till he deems the punishment suffi- 
cient. That dog will need no more reminders for 
a day at least. Almost always after starting out 
one or two dogs have to be handled in this manner 
before they will settle down to the day's work. 
Not infrequently dog-teams, meeting in the road, 



124 IN SEARCH OF A 

will stop and the drivers will proceed to " swap 
horses," or rather dogs, in the true David Harum 
style. But the two leaders are never exchanged 
in this way. They are the driver's favorites, and 
are too valuable to risk in such a trade. Even if 
their master is starving he will not part with his 
leaders. 

About five miles out, we met a team of dogs 
going up-country. We stopped simultaneously 
to exchange news, and inside of ten seconds one 
of our dogs made a jump at one of the other team. 
This was the signal, and in an instant all the 
twenty-eight dogs were at it tooth and nail in one 
grand scrimmage. After beating them unmerci- 
fully, the drivers were able to separate the two 
teams, and we found that three of our dogs were 
limping. I then learned that in a fight the Sibe- 
rian dog does not make for his antagonist's 
throat, but for his feet, for he seems to know that 
injury to that member is the most serious that can 
happen to a sledge-dog. It was amusing to see 
with what deftness they would draw their feet 
back from the snap of the enemy. The neck is 
generally covered with a thick growth of hair 
which is impervious to teeth, while from the ankle 
to the foot the hair is cut away by the driver to 
prevent the snow from balling upon it. Our 
troubles proved not to be serious, and at the end 
of the third hour we approached Ghijiga. As 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 127 

soon as the dogs scented the town they gave a 
simultaneous yelp and broke into a swift run, as 
is always their custom in approaching any settle- 
ment. At the same time all the dogs of the vil- 
lage, apparently, came rushing out to meet us, 
and ran alongside yelping and snapping in a 
friendly way at our dogs. Old Chrisoff sky drew 
up with a flourish before my cabin, where I re- 
ceived a hearty welcome from the townsfolk. 
This day's trip from Chrisoff sky's house by dog- 
sledge cost me the enormous sum of one rouble, 
or fifty cents in United States gold. 

It was now late in October, and it was necessary 
for me to stop in Ghijiga while my winter outfit 
of clothes was being prepared. The snow was al- 
ready deep and the river frozen solid, excepting 
at the rapids. But cold as it was, my work was 
but just beginning, for it is only in winter that 
long distance travel is possible. In summer you 
may struggle across six or eight miles of spongy 
tundra a day, but in winter you can easily cover 
from sixty to ninety miles, depending upon the 
quality of your teams and the number of your 
relays. 

By this time the natives were beginning to 
bring in their furs and other valuables to ex- 
change with the merchants of the trading com- 
pany. It may be of interest to give the prevail- 
ing prices. 



128 IN SEARCH OF A 

The native, ordinarily, does not take money for 
his skins, but various kinds of necessaries. Re- 
ducing it all, however, to a monetary basis, we 
find that he receives for sable skin ten to thirteen 
roubles; red-fox skin, two to three roubles; 
white-fox skin, one and a half roubles; black- 
fox skin, fifty to one hundred and fifty roubles; 
blue-squirrel skin, thirty-five cents; unborn-deer 
skin, twelve cents; turbogan (kind of coon), fif- 
teen cents ; yearling-deer skin, seventy-five cents ; 
sea-dog skin, one rouble; black-bear skin, seven 
roubles ; brown-bear skin, five roubles ; white-bear 
skin, twenty-five roubles; walrus rope, two cents 
a yard; walrus ivory, from five cents to one and 
a half roubles a tusk; mammoth tusk, five to six 
roubles ; fur coats, one and a half to five roubles ; 
boots, twenty-five cents to seventy-five cents a 
pair. For an ermine skin he is wont to receive 
two needles or a piece of sugar as large as a 
thimble. 

In exchange for these commodities the traders 
give tea, sugar, powder, lead, cartridges, tobacco, 
bar iron one inch wide by a quarter of an inch 
thick, needles, beads, and various other trinkets. 

When the goods are marketed it is found that 
the company makes anywhere from one hundred 
to one thousand per cent, profit. Tea, the article 
most called for, allows only one hundred per cent, 
profit. On sugar some three hundred per cent, is 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 131 

made, and on the trinkets and other miscellaneous 
goods anywhere from five hundred to one thou- 
sand per cent, is made. 

Several significant facts are to be deduced from 
this list : first, the low price that is paid for sables 
compared with the prices they bring in the Euro- 
pean market; second, the comparatively high 
price the skin of the black fox brings, although 
it is only a fraction of what it costs at home (a 
single skin has brought as high as four thousand 
dollars in Paris) ; third, the extremely low cost of 
ermine ; and fourth, the fact that there is no active 
trade in mammoth tusks, although they are plen- 
tiful. They are often ten feet in length, and it 
might be supposed that they would contain ivory 
enough to make them worth much more than they 
bring; but the fact is that it is fossil ivory, and 
the outside of each tusk is so far broken and de- 
cayed that only the very center of the tusk con- 
tains marketable ivory. 

The common rule is to give the natives one 
year's credit; the tea, sugar, tobacco, and other 
articles which they receive this year being paid 
for by the skins which they bring next year. The 
plan works well, for the natives are scrupulous in 
the payment of their debts. And furthermore, 
the traders, being on the spot, have a wide per- 
sonal acquaintance among the natives and know 
just whom they can depend upon. 



132 IN SEARCH OF A 

Of course the most valuable portion of the 
produce of this north country is sable skins. 
There are four kinds, or rather grades, of sables. 
The finest come from the Lena River district ; the 
second grade from the territory of which we are 
writing and within a radius of five hundred miles 
about the head of the Okhotsk Sea; the third 
grade from the Amur River district, and the 
fourth from Manchuria. Generally, the farther 
north one goes the better the sables. 

Before Siberia was conquered by Russia, sables 
were extremely common, but gradually they were 
pushed back by the coming of settlers, for they 
will not remain in the vicinity of human dwell- 
ings. They live in holes, as do the martens or er- 
mines, but those who have studied their habits say 
that they frequently build nests of sticks and 
grass in the branches of trees, and use them alter- 
nately with their holes. They usually sleep about 
half the day, and roam about in search of food the 
other half. In the early spring they live on hares, 
though they will also eat weasles or ermine. 
When the berries are in season they subsist solely 
on cranberries, blueberries, and especially the ber- 
ries of the shad-bush. The natives say that eating 
these last causes them to itch and rub themselves 
against the trees, which for the time being spoils 
their fur; so that while the shad-bush is in berry 
no sables are caught. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 133 

About the end of March the sable brings forth 
its young, from three to five in the litter, and 
suckles them from four to six weeks. 

The method of trapping sables has been well 
described by a quaint writer near the beginning 
of the nineteenth century, and, as there have been 
very few changes during the interval, he is worth 
quoting : 

The sable hunters, whether Russian or native, begin to 
set out for hunting about the beginning of September. 
Some Russians go themselves, and others hire people to 
hunt for them, giving them proper clothes and instru- 
ments for hunting, and provisions for the time of their 
being out. When they return from the chase they give 
their masters all the game, and restore them likewise all 
that they received, except the provisions. 

A company that agrees to hunt together assembles 
from six to forty men, though formerly there were some- 
times even fifty. They provide a small boat for every 
three or four men, which they cover over; and take 
with them such persons as understand the language of 
the people among whom they go to hunt, and like- 
wise the places properest for hunting. These persons 
they maintain at the public charge, and give them, be- 
sides, an equal share of the game. 

In these boats every hunter lays thirty poods of rye- 
flour, one pood 1 of wheat-flour, one pood of salt, and a 
quarter of a pood of groats. Every two men must have 

1 Russian weight equivalent to thirty-six pounds avoirdupois. 



134 IN SEARCH OF A 

a net, a dog, and several poods of provisions for the dog, 
a bed and covering, a vessel for preparing their bread, 
and a vessel to hold leaven. They carry with them very 
few firearms. 

The boats are then drawn up-stream as far as they 
can go, where the hunters build for themselves. Here 
they all assemble and live until the river is frozen over. 
In the mean time they choose for their chief leader one 
who has been of tenest upon these expeditions ; and to his 
orders they profess an entire obedience. He divides the 
company into several small parties, and names a leader 
to each, except his own, which he himself directs ; he also 
appoints the places where each party is to hunt. As 
soon as the season begins, this division into small parties 
is unalterable, even though the whole company consists 
of only eight or nine, for they never all go toward the 
same place. When their leaders have given them their 
orders, every small company digs pits upon the road by 
which they must go. In these pits they lay up for every 
two men three bags of flour against their return, when 
they shall have consumed all their other provisions ; and 
whatever they have left in the huts they are obliged 
to hide also in pits, lest the wild inhabitants should 
steal it. 

As soon as the rivers are frozen over and the season 
is proper for the sable hunting, the chief of the leaders 
calls all the huntsmen into the hut, and, having prayed to 
God, gives orders to every chief of each small company, 
and despatches them the same road which was before as- 
signed them. Then the leader sets out one day before 
the rest to provide lodging-places for them. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 135 

When the chief leader despatches the under-leaders he 
gives them several orders ; one of which is that each should 
build his first lodging in honor of some church, which 
he names, and the other lodgings to some such saint 
whose image he has with him, and that the first sable 
they catch should be laid aside in the quarter of the 
church, and at their return be presented to it. These 
sables they call " God's Sables," or the church's. The 
first sable that is caught in the quarter of each saint is 
given to the person who brought the image of that saint 
with him. 

On their march they support themselves with a wooden 
crutch about four feet long ; upon the end of which they 
put a cow's horn, to keep it from being split by the ice, 
and a little above they bind it around with thongs to 
keep it from sinking too deep in the snow. The upper 
part is broad like a spade, and serves to shovel away the 
snow or to take it up and put it into their kettles, for 
they must use snow, as they have frequently no water. 
The principal chief having sent out the small parties, 
starts with his own. When they come to the places of 
lodging they build little huts of logs, and bank them up 
with snow round about. They hew several trees upon 
the road, that they may the more easily find their way in 
the winter. Near every quarter they prepare their trap- 
pits, each of which is surrounded with sharp stakes, about 
six or seven feet high, and about four feet distant, and is 
covered over with boards to prevent the snow from fall- 
ing in. The entrance through the stakes is narrow, 
and over it a board is hung so nicely that by the least 
touch of the sables it turns and throws them into the 



136 IN SEARCH OF A 

trap; and they must absolutely go this way to reach a 
piece of fish or flesh with which the trap is baited. The 
hunters stay in a station till they have a sufficient num- 
ber of traps set, every hunter being obliged to make 
twenty in a day. When they have passed ten of these 
quarters the leader sends back half of his company to 
bring up the provisions that were left behind, and with 
the remainder he advances to build more huts and set 
more traps. 

These carriers must stop at all the lodging -places to 
see that the traps are in order, and take out any sables 
they may find in them, and skin them, which none must 
pretend to do but the chief man of the company. 

If the sables are frozen they thaw them out by putting 
them under the bedclothes with them. When the skins 
are taken off, all present sit down and are silent, being 
careful that nothing is hanging on the stakes. The body 
of the sable is laid upon dried sticks, and these are after- 
ward lighted, the body of the animal smoked, and then 
buried in the snow or the earth. Often when they ap- 
prehend that the Tunguses may meet them and take 
away their booty, they put the skins into hollow pieces 
of wood and seal up the ends with snow, which being 
wetted soon freezes. These they hide in the snow near 
their huts, and gather them up when they return in a 
body. When the carriers are come with provisions, then 
the other half are sent for more ; and thus they are em- 
ployed in hunting, the leader always going before to 
build traps. When they find few sables in their traps 
they hunt with nets, which they can only do when they 
find the fresh tracks of sables in the snow. These they 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 137 

follow till it brings them to the hole where the sable has 
entered; or if they lose it near other holes, they put 
smoking pieces of rotten wood to them, which generally 
forces the sable to leave the hole. The hunter at the 
same time has spread his net, into which the animal usu- 
ally falls; and for precaution his dog is generally near 
at hand. Thus the hunter sits and waits sometimes two 
or three days. They know when the sable falls into the 
net by the sound of two small bells which are fastened to 
it. They never put smoky pieces of wood into those 
holes which have only one opening, for the sable would 
sooner be smothered than come towards the smoke, in 
which case it is lost. 

When the chief leader and all the hunters are gathered 
together, then the leaders of the small parties report to 
the chief how many sables or other beasts their party 
has killed, and if any of the parties have done anything 
contrary to his orders and the common laws. These 
crimes they punish in different ways. Some of the cul- 
prits they tie to a stake; others they oblige to ask par- 
don from every one in the company; a thief they beat 
severely, and allow him no part of the booty ; nay, they 
even take his own baggage from him and divide it among 
themselves. They remain in their headquarters until the 
rivers are free of ice ; and after the hunting they spend 
their time preparing the skins. Then they set out in the 
boats they came in, and when they get home they give the 
sables to the several churches to which they promised 
them ; and then, having paid their fur-tax, they sell the 
rest, dividing equally the money or goods which they 
receive for them. 



138 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 

Before Kamchatka was conquered by the Rus- 
sians the sables were so plentiful that a hunter 
could easily take seventy or eighty in a season, 
but they were esteemed more for their flesh than 
for their fur. At first the natives paid their 
tribute in sables, and would give eight skins for a 
knife and eighteen for an ax. 



CHAPTER IX 

OFF FOR THE NORTH A RUNAWAY 

My winter wardrobe of deerskin — Shoes that keep the feet 
warm when it is sixty degrees below zero — Plemania, a 
curious native food in tabloid form — Other provisions — 
Outline of proposed exploration about the sources of the 
Ghijiga River — Four hours of sun a day — When dog 
meets deer — A race for life and a ludicrous denouement 
— More queer native dishes — Curious habits of the sledge- 
dog. 

I NOW set about preparing my winter ward- 
robe. With the aid of my good friend Mrs. 
Braggin, several native women were set at work 
to make a complete suit of native clothes, for I 
knew that only in these would I be able to endure 
the rigors of their arctic winter. The trousers 
were made of yearling-deer skin tanned soft on 
the inside, and the short hair left on the outside. 
A short jacket of the same material completed the 
inner suit. The socks were made of the same skin 
with the fur left on the inside. They reached well 
to the knee. Over these came a pair of boots 
made from skin taken from reindeer's legs, with 
soles of seal-hide. A cushion of grass is used in 

139 



140 IN SEARCH OF A 

the boot. The skin taken from the reindeer's leg 
is better adapted to the manufacture of boots than 
any other part of the skin, because the hair is 
shorter and denser in growth. I also had boots 
with soles made of the fur which grows between 
the toes of the reindeer, and which is of such a 
texture that it prevents slipping on the ice. On 
each foot of the reindeer there is a tuft of this hair 
about as large as a silver dollar, and it takes 
twelve of them to make the sole of a single boot. 
These boots are used only in extremely cold 
weather. Even with the thermometer sixty de- 
grees below zero they prevent cold feet. 

For an overcoat I had a great koklanka made. 
It was shaped like a huge night-gown, reaching 
to the knee. It was made of two thicknesses of 
yearling-deer skin, and was provided with an 
ample hood. It is too heavy to wear when walk- 
ing, but is used in the dog- or deer-sledge and 
when sleeping. It is usually belted in with 
a gay-colored woolen scarf. For head-gear I 
wore a " Xansen " woolen hat capable of being 
drawn down over the face. Without it my nose 
would have been severely punished. My heavy 
mittens were made of fur from the deer's leg, 
with the hair outside. Even in the worst ofi 
weather they were a complete protection from 
cold. Of snow-shoes I took three pairs, two 
being designed for use in soft snow. They mea- 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 143 

sured five feet and ten inches long by eight inches 
wide, being pointed and curved up in front and 
gathered to a point at the back. They were shod 
with reindeer fur, with the hair pointing back, 
thus preventing slipping. One pair for use on 
hard snow were three feet long and eight inches 
wide. 

An indispensable part of my equipment was a 
sleeping-bag made of the thick winter fur of the 
reindeer, with the fur inside. It was provided 
with a hood that, when pulled down, completely 
shut out the cold. One would suppose that the 
sleeper must smother in such a case ; but, although 
at first it seemed rather close, I suffered no in- 
convenience. Enough air found its way in 
around the edge of the hood for respiration. 

For provisions I first laid in several hundred 
pounds of plemaniaj as the Russians call it. It 
consists of little balls of reindeer meat chopped 
fine, and surrounded with a casing of dough. 
Each ball was about the size of an English wal- 
nut. These froze immediately and remained so 
till thrown into a pot of boiling water. Ten min- 
utes then sufficed to make a most tempting dish. 
To this I added several hundred pounds of hard 
rye bread, which had been cut in slices and dried 
on the top of the oven to the consistency of stone. 
Tea, sugar, and tobacco were added as luxuries, 
though the first is well-nigh a necessity, and all 



144 IN SEARCH OF A 

of them are potent levers in opening the hearts 
of the native Korak or Tunguse. I took a small 
quantity of dried fruits, which, of course, proved 
most useful in a land where food is almost all of 
an animal nature. 

It was my intention to explore first the moun- 
tains in which the Ghijiga River has its source, 
together with the tributary streams; and after 
that to cross over the mountains and explore the 
head waters of the rivers flowing north into the 
-Arctic Ocean. I anticipated that this would take 
at least two months. 

Old ChrisofFsky furnished six dog-sledges; he 
himself and two of his sons acted as drivers. The 
other three drivers were hired from Ghijiga. My 
party consisted, then, of the following members : 
my faithful Kim, who stuck to me through thick 
and thin, though, at first, he little dreamed how 
far I would take him from the pleasant hills and 
valleys of his beloved Chosun; my Tunguse 
guide, Fronyo, who had proved such a valuable 
help in my trip into his district; the six drivers, 
myself, and the eighty-four dogs. I had left be- 
hind all my Russian help, as they would have been 
of no value on such an expedition as this. 

The reader may imagine that our stock of food 
was small for such a party, but we were going into 
a reindeer country where we were sure of securing 
all the meat we wanted. So all the available space 



S3 

B' 

a* 




SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 147 

on the sledges was loaded with dog-food — 
namely, salmon heads and backs. It was now 
November, and there were only four hours of 
sunlight — from ten to two. But the northerner 
does not depend on the sun. The glistening 
snow and the stars overhead give sufficient light 
for ordinary travel. 

We were off with a dash and a happy howl of 
mingled dogs and village children, at one in the 
afternoon, and that night we spent at Chrisoff- 
sky's village. The next morning we were off again 
in the gray light at seven o'clock, up the bed of 
the Ghijiga River. The third day out we neared 
the yourta of a wealthy Tunguse magistrate. At 
four o'clock in the afternoon the dogs suddenly 
broke into a swift run, and we knew they had 
scented something that interested them. We soon 
perceived that we had struck a deer trail and that 
we were nearing an encampment. We turned a 
bend in the road and there, a hundred yards ahead 
of us, saw the cause of the dogs' excitement. A 
team of reindeer were running for their lives. 
Their Tunguse driver was lashing them with the 
whip and urging them on with all his might, for 
he knew as well as we that if our dogs over- 
took them before the camp was reached, we seven 
men would be utterly powerless to prevent the 
dogs from tearing the deer to pieces. Chrisoff sky 
put on the brake with all his might, but it had not 



148 IN SEARCH OF A 

the least effect. Our fourteen dogs had become 
wolves in the turn of a hand and no brake could 
stop them. There were many stumps and other 
obstructions along our path, and my driver had 
great difficulty in preventing a smash-up. For 
a short time the deer held their own, and, in fact, 
gained on us, but before the yourta came in sight 
we were gaining rapidly. While we were still 
at some distance the people of the village, warned 
by the cries of the dogs, comprehended what was 
the matter, and, arming themselves with sticks 
and spears, came running toward us. As they 
came on they spread out in a fan-like formation 
across the trail. When the terrified deer reached 
them they opened and let the team through, and 
instantly closed again to dispute the passage of 
our dogs. Chrisoffsky was in no wise minded to 
let these natives club his dogs and perhaps injure 
the valuable animals, so he resorted to the last ex- 
pedient. Giving a shout of warning to me he 
suddenly, by a deft motion, turned our sledge 
completely over, landing me in a snow-drift on 
my head. In this position the sledge was all 
brake and the dogs were forced to stop, leaping 
in their harness and yelling like fiends incarnate. 
I sat up in the snow-bank and laughed. The 
other drivers had followed our example, and the 
struggling tangle of sledges, harness, dogs and 
men formed a scene that to the novice at least 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 149 

was highly ludicrous. The drivers and the village 
people were belaboring the dogs, and the entire 
herd of reindeer belonging to the village were es- 
caping in all directions up the hills. 

When order was at last restored, which was not 
accomplished till every deer was out of sight, we 
made our way to the yourta, which was large and 
comfortable, and, as usual, the women set about 
making tea. The reader may well ask how the 
natives can use both dogs and reindeer if the 
very sight of a deer has such a maddening 
effect on the dogs. The explanation is sim- 
ple. The two never go together. There is 
the dog country and the deer country, and 
the two do not impinge upon each other. 
Even among the same tribe there may be a 
clear division. For instance, there are the 
" Deer Koraks " and the " Dog Koraks." In 
some of the villages of the former there may oc- 
casionally be seen a few low-bred curs which are 
not used for sledging and have been trained not 
to worry deer. Confusion is often unavoidably 
caused by traveling with dogs through a deer 
country, but the natives do not take it in ill part, 
knowing that if they themselves have to travel 
with deer through a dog country they will cause 
quite as much inconvenience. 

While we were drinking tea and eating hard 
bread I noted that the settlement contained some 



150 IN SEARCH OF A 

thirty men, with their wives and children. The 
women hastened to prepare a dinner of unborn- 
deer's flesh and deer tongues. Frozen marrow 
bones, uncooked, were broken and the marrow, in 
the shape of sticks or candles, was passed around 
as a great delicacy. These dishes, together with 
frozen cranberries, formed our repast, and a very 
good one we voted it. 

When we were done I went outside and found, 
to my surprise, that the dogs had not yet been fed. 
I remonstrated with ChrisofFsky, but he answered 
that they had not yet finished their evening toilet. 
Then I saw that the dogs were busy licking them- 
selves and biting the pieces of frozen snow out 
from between their toes. My driver explained 
that if they were fed before performing this very 
necessary task, they would immediately lie down 
to sleep and wake up in the morning with sore 
feet and rheumatism, and then they would be use- 
less for several days. It takes the dogs a good 
hour before they have groomed themselves fit for 
dinner. They seem to know that they can get 
nothing to eat before this work is done, but the 
minute they have finished they sit up and begin 
to howl for their meal. Each dog receives two 
or three salmon backs and heads. This is a fairly 
good amount considering that the salmon were 
originally eighteen- or twenty-pound fish. The 
dogs were all left in harness and still attached to 




Theodosia Chrisoffsky., Guide. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 153 

the main tug. This is pulled taut and anchored 
at the front with the polka, which prevents the 
dogs from fighting, for no more than two can 
reach each other at a time. As they feed, the dri- 
vers watch them to see that they do not steal each 
other's food. After they finish their dinner they 
scratch a shallow place in the snow, curl up with 
their backs to the wind and go to sleep. They are 
never unfastened from the sledge from one end 
of the journey to the other. They literally live in 
the harness. While the dogs were eating, the 
mongrel curs belonging to the encampment (an 
entirely different breed from the sledge-dog) 
stood around and yelped saucily at the big intru- 
ders, but the sledge-dogs gave them no notice 
whatever. 

The dogs sleep quietly all night unless one of 
them happens to raise his nose and emit a long- 
drawn howl. At this signal they all join in the 
howl for about three minutes, stopping at the 
same instant. If some puppy happens to give an 
additional yelp, all the others turn a disgusted 
look at him as if, indeed, he ought to display bet- 
ter manners. This howling concert generally 
comes off two or three times a night. We do not 
know what causes it, but probably it is some sub- 
conscious recollection of their ancestral wolf- 
hood. The same thing happens whenever the 
team stops on the road. They all sit and howl for 
several minutes. 



154 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 

On the road the dogs are fed simply with the 
dried fish heads and backs; but at home a more 
elaborate meal is prepared for them. Water is 
put into a sort of trough, and then rotten fish, 
which has been kept in pits, is added, with a few 
of the dried fish, and the whole is cooked by 
throwing in red-hot stones. This is fed to the 
dogs only at night. In the summer-time the dogs 
have to forage for themselves, which they do by 
digging out tundra-rats. By the time summer 
is over the dogs are so fat that they have to be 
tied up and systematically starved till brought 
into condition for the sledge again. This period 
is one long concert of howls, but the natives do 
not seem to mind it. The food of the dogs is en- 
tirely carnivorous, for they would rather live by 
gnawing their own harness than to eat bread, even 
if the latter could be supplied. The instinct by 
which these animals foresee the coming of a bliz- 
zard is truly wonderful. The unfailing sign of a 
coming storm is the pawing of the snow. For 
what reason they paw the snow will probably 
never be known. This, too, may be some residual 
taint of their original savage state. 



CHAPTER X 

THROUGH THE DRIFTS 

Sledging over snow four feet deep — Making a camp in the 
snow — Finding traces of gold — A grand slide down a 
snow-covered hill — My polka breaks with disastrous re- 
sults — Prospecting over the Stanovoi range. 

THE next morning we had before us ten 
miles of forest in which the snow lay four 
feet deep, and the trail was unbroken. This 
meant serious work for our teams. At the advice 
of Chrisoffsky I hired two reindeer narties to go 
ahead and break the trail, but they had to keep a 
mile in advance, out of sight of our dogs. The 
snow had been falling all night, and when we 
came out in the morning, we saw only a lot of 
little snow hummocks, like baby graves in the 
snow. Chrisoffsky cried, " Hyuk, hyuk!" and 
there occurred a most surprising resurrection. 
Every dog jumped clear of the ground from his 
warm bed and clamored to be off. I looked to see 
them fed, but nothing were they to have till their 
day's work was done. When fed during the day 
they are lazy and useless, but with the anticipa- 

155 



156 IN SEARCH OF A 

tion of salmon heads before them they push on 
heroically. It would be difficult to express ade- 
quately my admiration for these animals. They 
are patient, faithful, and always ready for work. 

A mile, then, in the lead went the reindeer nar- 
ties to break the trail; and ahead of them were 
two Tunguse villagers on snow-shoes to mark the 
way for the deer. 

A mile in the rear came the dogs, and heavy 
work it was, as is shown by the fact that when 
lunch-time came we had made only five miles. 
When we came up with the Tunguses they had 
already built a fire, and water was boiling. The 
deer were tethered in the bushes about two hun- 
dred yards away, out of sight of the dogs. The 
latter smelled them, however, and were making 
desperate efforts to break out of their harness and 
give chase, but their efforts seemed futile, so we 
paid no more attention to them. As we were busy 
drinking tea I happened to look around, and was 
dismayed to see that the worst dog in the pack 
had broken loose and was already near the deer, 
who were plunging and making desperate efforts 
to escape. When the dog was almost at the 
throat of the nearest deer it broke its fastenings 
and made off through the snow, followed by the 
rest of the herd. We hurried after them on our 
snow-shoes at our best speed. The deer could 
easily outstrip the dog in the deep snow, but we 



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CD 
t-i 

i— j 

CD 

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CD 
CD 
hS 

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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 159 

wanted to stop the chase before they were com- 
pletely frightened away. But we were too late. 
By the time that we had secured the dog the deer 
were a mile away, making straight for home, and 
we knew that nothing could stop them till they 
found themselves in their own village. 

Thus it came about that we had to break our 
own trail for the balance of the way through the 
woods. This proved to be extremely difficult. 
Every man had to put his shoulder to the wheel, 
or rather to the sledge, and frequently it was ne- 
cessary to use several teams of dogs on a single 
sledge, and then return for the other sledge. 
When night came we found that we had covered 
nine miles, after an exceedingly hard day's work. 
We were still a mile from the river, where we 
were sure to find a good road on the ice. 

We had now to prepare for the night. With 
our snow-shoes for shovels we cleared a space 
twelve feet square right down to the ground, and 
built a roaring fire in the center of the cleared 
spot. The loaded sledges were placed on the 
banks about the sides, while the dogs lay, as usual, 
in the snow. Our sleeping-bags were placed 
about the fire on piles of fir boughs, and after a 
good supper of reindeer soup, bread, and tea, 
we lay down and went to sleep. A light snow 
covered us with a mantle of down, which ensured 
our warmth. 

8 



160 IN SEARCH OF A 

When I awoke in the morning and opened my 
hood, I found two inches of snow over me. That 
day we floundered through the remaining mile of 
deep snow to the river. I was pushing one of the 
sledges, when we came to the steep bank that 
leads down to the river. The sled began to glide 
down the declivity, settling deeper and deeper. 
Chrisoffsky called to me to get on quickly, as 
there was open water beneath, but he was too late. 
I was already in the icy water up to my knees. 
We had unfortunately struck a snow-bridge over 
open water. The sled was fast in the snow, and 
the dogs were struggling madly. By vigorous 
pulling and pushing we managed to get the 
sledge out on to the ice. The other drivers, who 
were behind, saw our predicament and went up- 
stream, prodding with their polkas until they 
found solid ice beneath. Chrisoffsky immedi- 
ately began taking the lashings off the pack on 
the sled to get me dry fur socks and boots. Al- 
most before I could undo the lashings, those I 
wore were frozen stiff. The last one was cut 
away with a knife. I applied a vigorous rubbing 
with snow to my feet and they were soon glowing 
with warmth. Then pulling on the warm, soft 
fur socks and fresh boots, I found that I had 
suffered no harm; but Chrisoffsky warned me 
that whenever I had wet feet I must change im- 
mediately or serious consequences would result. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 161 

At the time, the thermometer stood between ten 
and fifteen degrees below zero. 

On examining the wind-swept bars of the creek 
there seemed to be good promise of gold, so mak- 
ing camp near timber I prepared for a three or 
four days' stay. The ground was frozen to bed- 
rock, and it was necessary to thaw it out all the 
way down. The following day I unloaded the 
sledges and sent them into the woods under the 
direction of ChrisofFsky to haul in fuel for the 
fires. I selected a likely spot and proceeded to 
thaw out a shaft. As this was very slow work, I 
determined to try it in several places at the same 
time. After the fires had burned three hours the 
picks and shovels would be called into play, and 
we could take out about twelve or fifteen inches 
of gravel. The surface gravel showed some small 
" colors " in the pan, and I determined to set 
watches and keep the fires going night and day. 
A windlass was rigged over one of the shafts, and 
we went down twenty-five feet, till we came to 
boulders which showed that we were near bed- 
rock. Six inches more brought us to the end. I 
eagerly panned out some of the gravel and found 
several tiny nuggets, but was forced to admit that 
there was not enough gold to pay for working. 
The other shafts showed the same results; 
so we were compelled to move on after four 
days of exhausting and fruitless work. We 



162 IN SEARCH OF A 

repeated this operation at several other points 
on the river, and carefully examined the 
outcroppings all along the stream. Coming 
to the head of the river, we crossed over the 
summit of the ridge. The aneroid showed that 
we were seven thousand six hundred feet above 
the sea level. When we reached the top, we 
found that a long, smooth stretch of snow swept 
down into the valley beyond. For a quarter of a 
mile the smooth, hard surface was unbroken by 
bush or .stone. I asked Chrisoff sky how it would 
do to slide down, but he shook his head and re- 
plied that it would be dangerous for dogs and 
sledges alike. I had, however, conceived the fool- 
ish notion that it would relieve the monotony of 
life a little to slide down that incline, and I over- 
persuaded my driver to make the attempt. More- 
over, it would save several miles of travel over a 
safer but more circuitous route. The dogs were 
unhitched. Chrisoffsky's two sons took one of 
the sledges, and, by sticking their heels into the 
snow, slid about half way down somewhat slowly, 
then they both climbed on to the sledge, stuck 
their polkas into the snow for brakes, and "let her 
go." They went the remaining distance like an 
arrow, and shot out into the plain below trium- 
phantly. They stopped and waved their hands as 
much as to say," See how easy it Is." Chrisoff sky 
then sent down one team of dogs, still fastened 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 165 

to the tug. This was a mistake, for the leaders 
went cautiously and the others crowded on them. 
In an instant they were one howling, wrangling 
ball of dog-fur rolling down the hill. The natives 
were all shouting and cursing their liveliest, but 
I could only hold my sides with laughter. I ut- 
terly refused to see the serious side of the adven- 
ture. The remaining dogs were sent down two 
and two. ChrisofFsky and I, with one sled, were 
the last to go. Sitting on opposite sides of the 
sledge with our polkas carefully adjusted, we 
slipped over the brink and shot down the hill. 
By some perverse chance my polka broke in my 
hands, the sledge slewed around, and we both 
went head over heels. I landed on my head some 
yards from the careening sledge and continued 
my journey down the hill in a variety of attitudes, 
all of which were exciting, but none very comfor- 
table. Had I not been so heavily bundled up I 
could not have escaped serious injury. Old 
ChrisofFsky and the sledge were a good second 
in the race, first one and then the other being on 
top. They held together bravely. When we all 
rounded up at the bottom and took an inventory 
of damages, we found that there were no bones 
broken and that no harm had been done, except 
to my Winchester rifle, the barrel of which was 
sprung. 

And as the days passed, I continued to busy 



166 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 

myself examining the outcroppings or digging in 
the creek beds for signs of gold, until about the 
middle of December, by which time I had gone 
over that section of the Stanovoi range pretty 
thoroughly as far as their southern slopes were 
concerned. And then I essayed to pass over the 
lofty range to discover what was on the other 
side. 



CHAPTER XI 

BURIED IN A BLIZZARD 

A trip to the northern side of the Stanovoi range of moun- 
tains — Nijni Kolymsk, the most- feared convict station — 
Sledging by light of the aurora — Lost in a blizzard on 
the vast tundra — Five days in a snow dugout — I earn 
a reputation as a wizard — Back at Chrisoffsky's. 

IN order to reach the northern side of the 
Stanovoi range of mountains it was neces- 
sary to make use of one of the few passes that are 
to be found. At an elevation of nine thousand 
feet, we succeeded in accomplishing the passage, 
and found ourselves on the head waters of the 
Kolyma River. The name as given in that lo- 
cality was more like Killamoo than Kolyma. 
Due north, far across the wastes of snow, was the 
town of Nijni Kolymsk, the spot most dreaded 
by Siberian convicts. This station is used only 
for the most dangerous political prisoners. 
About their only occupation is to gather hay and 
pick berries in summer. Provisions are carried to 
them in the summer by a man-of-war. None but 
Russians in authority are ever allowed near the 
place. The natives could give me very little defi- 

167 



168 IN SEARCH OF A 

nite information about it. They had strict orders 
from the magistrate in Ghijiga not to approach 
this convict station. 

We swung to the northeast and east, which 
course would bring us back to Ghijiga. Wher- 
ever it was possible we examined the float rock 
and sunk shafts to determine whether any of the 
precious metal was hidden away in the mountains 
or beneath the waters of the streams. As we came 
back over the mountains our course lay over the 
head waters of the Paran River, which runs 
southeasterly and enters the Okhotsk Sea. We 
passed over the divide between this and the Ghi- 
jiga, and tried to steer a straight course for 
ChrisofFsky's house. Here we came to a stretch 
of tundra two hundred miles wide. The snow 
was hard and the going very good. We struck 
the trail of a number of " dog " Koraks who 
were, evidently, bringing in their furs. The 
tundra was as level as a floor, and the driving was 
so easy that it was possible to sit and doze while 
the dogs sped over the white expanse. 

As it was now December the nights were made 
bright by the light of the aurora, while at noon 
the sun just shone, a red disk, above the southern 
horizon. This is the month noted in that region 
for its severe storms. The days were mostly over- 
cast. The second morning after we had started 
out across the tundra a light flurry of snow blew 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 169 

up. Chrisoffsky shook his head and said it was 
going to storm. We were just half way across 
the bare tundra, the worst place possible in which 
to try to weather one of these storms, because of 
the utter lack of fire-wood. Chrisoffsky called 
back to me that he was looking for a porgo, 
which, in his dialect, means a blizzard. About 
noon the storm struck us with full force. I was 
continually standing up in the sledge to catch a 
sight, if possible, of some trailing pine where we 
could make an excavation and find fire-wood ; but 
it was all in vain. At last the dogs lost sight of 
the trail and could follow it only by the sense of 
smell. When the snow came down so heavily that 
we could hardly see our leading dogs, we halted 
to let the others catch up with us. With our 
snow-shoes we dug down six feet to the ground, 
making an excavation that was, roughly, eight 
feet square. Placing the three sledges around 
the edge of the hole, we banked them in 
with snow. Then we took a tarpaulin from 
one of the sledges and with walrus-hide rope 
improvised a sort of roof over our dug-out. 
The dogs, after washing themselves, dug holes 
in the snow and settled down comfortably 
to sleep. They were almost immediately covered 
with snow. At this time the thermometer stood 
thirty-five below zero. We could not tell whether 
it was actually snowing or whether the snow was 



170 IN SEARCH OF A 

only being driven by the wind, but at any rate, 
the air was filled with it and the prospect was 
anything but exhilarating. We lined the bottom 
of the hole with furs, got out our sleeping-bags, 
and prepared for a long siege. 

As we were without fuel, we had to eat cold 
food. Frozen reindeer meat taken raw is not an 
appetizing dish, but this, together with hard bread 
and pounded soup-ball, formed our diet for the 
next few days. As we had but few fish left, the 
dogs were put on short allowance. In this snowy 
prison we were held for four mortal days, and 
were obliged to climb out every three or four 
hours and relieve the tarpaulin of the weight of 
snow. Our furs were damp, caused by our 
breath, which congealed and thawed again from 
the warmth of the body; to say the very least of 
it, we were extremely uncomfortable. At last it 
got so bad that I gave orders to burn one of the 
sledges, and that day we feasted on hot tea. Our 
deer meat was all gone, so we stopped feeding the 
dogs, and appropriated the remaining fish to our 
own use. The result was that the dogs began 
gnawing their harness, and had to be chained up 
with dog-chains which we carried for the purpose. 
The time spent in oQr snow retreat was not en- 
tirely lost. To while away the tedious hours I 
gave my arctic friends some lessons in astronomy, 
using snowballs as object-lessons. It was not an 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 171 

ideal observatory, but there was at least snow 
enough to have represented all the heavenly 
bodies, down to fixed stars of the fourteenth 
magnitude. It all began by their asking how 
God made the aurora. On the side of our exca- 
vation I made a rough bas-relief of the great ma- 
sonic temple in Chicago. They looked at it very 
politely, but I could see that they took me for 
the past master of lying. I told them all about 
elections, telephones, phonographs, and rail- 
roads, and gathered from their expression that 
they thought I had gone mad from the cold and 
exposure. They looked at one another and mut- 
tered, " Duroc, duroc," which is Russian for 
crazv. 

I also amused myself at their expense by the 
use of a compass and a little pocket magnet ; the 
latter I palmed and with it made the magnetic 
needle play all sorts of antics. They asked what 
made the needle move about continually, and I 
replied that it would point to any place that I 
might designate, by simply requesting it to do 
so. Chrisoffsky, the skeptical, thought he had 
caught me, for he immediately asked me to make 
it point toward Ghijiga. Now I happened to 
know about where Ghijiga lay, for just before 
the storm came on I had caught a glimpse of a 
mountain near that town. So I put the compass 
in my lap, palmed the magnet, and began mut- 



172 IN SEARCH OF A 

tering and waving my hand over the compass. 
At the same time I repeated, in sepulchral tones, 
the magic formula: 

Ere eirie ickery Ann, 
Fillisy follisy Nicholas John, 
Queevy quavy English navy, 
Stickelum stackelum Johniko buck! 

The hand with the magnet was now in the proper 
position, and the needle pointed steadily toward 
Ghijiga. Old Chrisoffsky sat with amazement 
and fear pictured all over his face. He glanced 
over his shoulder as if looking for some place to 
run, and exclaimed in a deep and piteous tone, 
" Dia Bog! " which means, " O Lord." 

After a long silence he asked me if the com- 
pass would answer his questions as well. I said I 
did not know, but that he might try it and see. 
Concentrating his whole attention upon the com- 
pass, he bent over it and tried to imitate my mo- 
tions, and asked the instrument to tell him the 
direction in which his house lay. Of course the 
needle, which, meanwhile, I had been causing to 
swing about in all directions, now came to a stand- 
still due north, directly away from his house. 
He looked puzzled and said it must be because he 
did not understand the wizard formula, and I 
promised to teach it to him at some future time. 

I also performed some other simple tricks, 



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p 



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p 
o 




SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 175 

which actually frightened him so that for a time 
he went out and sat in the snow all alone. I found 
later that my reputation as a wizard spread 
through that whole district, and time and time 
again I had to go over these old tricks before ad- 
miring audiences. 

During the night of the fifth day the storm 
passed and the stars came out once more. Our 
bedraggled party crawled forth from our prison, 
and harnessed up the weak, but willing, dogs, 
who seemed to know that we were not far from 
home ; for they tugged at their collars gladly, and 
we were soon gliding over the snow. 

Ten miles from ChrisofFsky's house we came 
down upon the wind-swept ice of the Chorny 
Raichka, a tributary of the Ghijiga. From this 
point the going was ideal. We had timber on 
both sides, but we did not stop to build a fire. 
The dogs were very weak, yet they displayed 
wonderful mettle, knowing they were near home. 
They went so fast that the sledges were continu- 
ally slewing about on the smooth ice in imminent 
danger of capsizing; but they were steadied by 
a clever use of the polka. 

While still a mile from ChrisofFsky's, we saw 
women and children running out to meet us. Be- 
cause of the storm and the fact that we were two 
weeks overdue, we knew that there would be anx- 
ious mothers and wives in the little village. We 



176 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 

came in with a flourish, a score of children hang- 
ing on the sides of the sledges. We encountered 
a terrific storm of kisses, which I evaded as best I 
could. Willing hands unhitched the faithful 
dogs, and then we all went into the house. The 
village was warned of our approach while still 
far away, because each dog carried a little sleigh- 
bell on his back. The people had heard the tin- 
kling of the bells sometime before we had come 
in sight. 

To say that we fed off the fat of the land is 
literally true. Seal fat, deer fat, marrow fat, 
blubber galore with cranberries, and tea by the 
gallon. For once I gladly exchanged snow for 
vermin. Perhaps the greatest comfort was the 
opportunity to wash my face and hands, which I 
had not been able to do for seven days. 



CHAPTER XII 



CHRISTMAS— THE " DEER KORAKS " 



I celebrate Christmas day with the over-kind assistance of 
two hundred natives — Koraks as sharp-shooters — Comic 
features of a Russian dance — Off for Kaminaw — Another 
runaway — Slaughtering deer — A curious provision of 
nature — Eight families in one yourta — Korak method of 
washing dishes — A herd of ten thousand deer. 

WHEN I reached town the Russians desired 
to know what I had accomplished, and I 
was obliged to tell them that I had discovered no 
considerable deposits of gold on the head waters 
of the Ghijiga. 

Some time before this I had caused it to be- 
come known that I would pay liberally in tea or 
other commodities for bags of rock picked up in 
the beds of streams and delivered in Ghijiga. I 
now found upward of a ton of such specimens 
awaiting my inspection. This was my informa- 
tion bureau. I had found the natives trust- 
worthy, and I knew they would not pick up 
specimens near by and claim they had been 
brought from a distance. Some that I thus ex- 
amined had been brought seven hundred miles. 

177 



178 IN SEARCH OF A 

By a careful examination and classification of 
these specimens I was able to determine the va- 
rious geological formations of the district, and 
the next three weeks were spent in this important 
work. I wanted to be off again promptly, but 
as Christmas was at hand, it was impossible to 
secure dog-teams; so I was obliged to rest. 

As I sat in my cabin on Christmas eve, think- 
ing over old times, and feeling, perhaps, a trifle 
blue, I determined to usher in the great day with 
some eclat. So I loaded up every firearm that I 
had, and when midnight came I stepped outside 
and " let loose " with revolvers, rifles, and shot- 
guns. The first effect was to wake up four hun- 
dred dogs, who responded with howls and barks, 
which they kept up till morning. At seven 
o'clock, my Russian friends came flocking over to 
find out what I was celebrating. I told them that 
it was our Christmas day. Their Christmas 
comes twelve days later than ours. When they 
found out the cause of my exhilaration they 
slipped away, but within three hours the women 
and children began to appear, each loaded with a 
steaming dish. There were meats, fowls, ber- 
ries, pasties, fish, blubber, stuffed ptarmigan, 
deer tongues, and other things — enough to feed 
a hundred men. When the table was so full that 
it could hold no more, they put the dishes on the 
floor. I knew well that they had brought much 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 179 

more than I could handle, and I was somewhat 
embarrassed by their excessive generosity. But 
my fears were ill-founded, for soon the whole 
village began to arrive. The priests and magis- 
trates came first, and then the rest in descending 
scale, and by the time they were done, all the 
good things that they had brought had been con- 
sumed, as well as all that I could obtain from 
Mrs. Braggin. Two hundred were fed, and by 
night I was entirely cleaned out — cupboard, 
shelf, and cellar. What the small children could 
not eat they put in their pockets. The Russian 
storekeepers sent me a bag of coppers, telling me 
that it was the custom to give each child a coin on 
such occasions. When I went to bed at night, I 
determined that I would never again disturb the 
peace of Christmas night with firearms. 

On New Year's eve, fearing that the cere- 
mony might be repeated, I stole away on my 
snow-shoes and spent the day hunting ptarmi- 
gan. I had good luck, and bagged all I could 
carry. These beautiful little birds are about the 
size of a pigeon, but of heavier build. In sum- 
mer their color is brown, but in winter it is pure 
white, and they sit motionless in the snow, so that 
it is almost impossible to discover them. The na- 
tive boys kill them with bows and arrows. Al- 
most all the natives of the far north are good 
shots, being trained to it from boyhood. In 



180 IN SEARCH OF A 

order to catch ermine and belk (arctic squirrel) 
they must be marksmen of the first order; for 
these animals are small, and must be shot in the 
head, or the skin is worthless. For this purpose, 
twenty-two caliber rifles of German manufac- 
ture are used. They are muzzle-loaders, and can 
be purchased in Vladivostok for four roubles. 
The natives rig them up with a forked rest, and 
an ermine at seventy-five yards stands no chance 
of escape. 

About twenty years ago the Russian Govern- 
ment sent a company of expert Cossack rifle- 
men into this north country to teach the natives 
how to shoot. These instructors never got fur- 
ther than Ghijiga, though it had been the plan 
to distribute them throughout the district. Tar- 
gets were set up, and the Cossacks did some 
fancy shooting. The natives looked on stolidly, 
and when asked to shoot, declined to do so, but 
called up some of their boys, who easily worsted 
the Cossacks at their own game. 

The natives were always curious about mv 
Colts forty-five caliber six-shooters, as this 
weapon is not known in that section. In my 
younger days, I had seen something of Arizona 
and Texas life, and thought I was a pretty fair 
shot. One day a native with whom I was stop- 
ping asked me to let him have a shot with my re- 
volver. I tore a small piece of paper from my 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 181 

note-book and pinned it on a tree about twenty 
yards distant. I shot first, and came within an 
inch or so of the paper — a fairly good shot ; but 
the old Korak took the weapon, and, bringing it 
slowly into position, let drive, and hit the paper. 
I could detect no look of exultation on his face, 
t nor on that of any spectator. They took it as a 
matter of course that their tribesman should out- 
shoot me with my own weapon, the very first 
time he ever had one like it in his hand. I have 
never tried to shoot against a Korak since then. 
My only consolation was that it might have been 
an accident, for he refused to shoot again, al- 
though I pressed him to do so. For hunting 
large game, they use a forty-four caliber Win- 
chester, or a forty-five caliber German muzzle- 
loader. 

The feasting at the Russian Christmas-tide 
lasts fully three days. In the morning the entire 
population attends church, after which, appar- 
ently, a contest ensues as to who shall get drunk 
first; and the priest generally wins. They hitch 
up their dog-teams, and go from house to house, 
feasting and drinking. Etiquette demands that 
a man use his team, even if calling at a house ten 
rods away. The women troop about in gay 
dresses of calico, with bright silk handkerchiefs 
over their heads, and the men in their best furs, 
embroidered with silk. One of the most distinc- 



182 IN SEARCH OF A 

tive features of a Christmas celebration is that 
each person takes a full bath with soap, before 
the great day is ushered in. At the same time, 
the hair is combed and done up afresh. The 
transformation is so great that it is often hard 
even for bosom friends to recognize one another. 
All day long bands of boys go about singing 
carols. They enter one's home, and bow before 
the icon, and sing their songs, after which it is 
the proper thing to give each of them a coin or 
something to eat. In the evening, young men 
repeat the same performance, except that they 
bring large illuminated wheels, which they whirl 
before the icon as they sing the Christmas 
hymns. They receive about half a rouble apiece 
for this service. 

The next day I started in to return their calls. 
It is an insult not to taste every dish on the table 
of your host, and the result was that I soon 
reached my utmost capacity. In the evening, I 
dined with Mrs. Braggin, and afterward the 
room was cleared, and the whole village came in 
for a dance. For music, we had a piano, an ac- 
cordion, and a violin; the last was played by an 
old Russian, who knew sixteen bars of a single 
tune, and repeated it over and over, ad nauseam. 
In this primitive fashion, we made merry till the 
morning. The dance was a curious kind of 
quadrille, in which the men did almost all the 



a 
a 




SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 185 

dancing. The ladies stood at the corners, and 
the men in the center. The men danced very en- 
ergetically, with many steps that resemble the 
" bucking " and " winging " of the negro in the 
United States. At the same time, they shouted 
at the top of their voices. As for the women, 
they merely moved forward and back, with little 
mincing steps, and then turned around in their 
places. All this time the samovar was going full 
blast, and every one was streaming with perspi- 
ration. 

About midnight, the fun grew fast and furi- 
ous, and every one started in to kiss and hug his 
neighbor; for by this time, more than half were 
intoxicated. The worst feature of such a Rus- 
sian festive occasion is, that every one grows 
fearfully affectionate as he begins to feel the 
effect of the liquor. 

When the Christmas festivities were over, I 
made preparations to carry out a more extensive 
plan of exploration. It was my purpose to ex- 
amine the valleys of the rivers running from the 
Stanovoi range of mountains into Bering Sea; 
the beaches along the shore of that sea, and then 
to turn south to Baron Koff Bay, on the eastern 
coast of Kamchatka, where sulphur deposits 
were said to have been found; then across the 
neck of the Kamchatka Peninsula to Cape Me- 
maitch, and around the head of the Okhotsk Sea 



186 IN SEARCH OF 'A! 

to Ghijiga, my starting-point. This trip was in 
the form of a rough circle, and the total distance, 
including excursions, proved to be upward of 
twenty-five hundred miles. This distance I had 
to cover between January 15 and May 15, 
when the road would no longer be passable for 
sledges. 

My first work was to select and buy the best 
sledge-dogs to be found in the town. By this 
time, I had become fairly adept at driving a dog- 
team. Old Chrisoffsky did not care to under- 
take such a long trip, and so I selected as my 
head driver a half-caste named Metrofon 
Snevaydoff. Two villagers also contracted to 
go as far as the village of Kaminaw, which lies 
three hundred miles to the northeast of Ghijiga. 
They would not go further, because the country 
beyond this was unknown to them. But the 
magistrate gave me a letter to two Cossacks sta- 
tioned at Kaminaw, requesting them to furnish 
native dog-teams to take me on east from that 
point. I took but little dog-food, as the terri- 
tory through which I was going abounds in rein- 
deer, and we could get all the meat we needed. 
Provisions were beginning to run low in Ghi- 
jiga, and all I could buy was tea, sugar, tobacco, 
and a little dried fruit. 

It was the middle of January when we started 
out, all in good health and spirits. The ther- 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 187 

mometer stood at forty-six below zero. The 
dogs were fat, and their feet were in good condi- 
tion. We whirled out of the village at break- 
neck speed, followed by friendly cries of " Dai 
Bog chust leewee budet! ,: (" God give you good 
luck!") 

I had all I could do to manage my team. The 
road was worn perfectly smooth, and the sledge 
would slew about from side to side in constant 
danger of striking some obstruction and going 
over. I had to pull off my koklanka and work 
in my sweater, and yet even in that biting air 
the exercise kept me quite warm. In two hours 
the dogs settled down to a steady six-mile gait, 
and, leaving old Chrisoffsky's house on the left, 
I laid a direct course over the tundra for the 
mountains now visible far to the northeast. By 
five o'clock, we saw signs of deer, which showed 
us that we were nearing the encampment that 
was to be our lodging-place for the night. 
Mounting a rise of land, we beheld, scattered 
over the face of the landscape, thousands of rein- 
deer which belonged to the denizens of half a 
dozen skin yourtas, sheltered from the wind in 
the valley below. 

Snevaydoff's team, which was in the lead, 
caught the scent of the deer, and dashed down 
the hill, and I after him, though I jammed my 
polka down and braked with all my might. It 



188 IN SEARCH OF A 

had no effect on my speed, and I saw that I was 
simply being run away with. On the left, near a 
yourta, a bunch of deer were standing, and, in 
spite of all my efforts, my dogs left the road and 
bolted straight for them. The deer bounded 
away in mad flight. Snevaydoff had already 
turned his sledge over and brought his team to 
a halt, but I was enjoying a new sensation. I 
pulled out my polka and " let her slide," liter- 
ally. I was minded to save the Koraks the 
trouble of slaughtering a few of their deer by 
doing it myself. Just as " Old Red " got a good 
mouthful of hair, our flight suddenly came to an 
end with the sledge turning upside down. The 
natives hurried up and caught the dogs, and, 
bringing them down to the yourtas, fastened 
them securely. 

I have coursed antelope in Texas, and in Ari- 
zona have picked wild turkeys from the ground 
while on horseback, but for good exhilarating 
sport give me fourteen wild sledge-dogs, the 
open tundra, and a bunch of deer ahead. 

I found, to my surprise and pleasure, that the 
old Korak in charge of the village was the one 
who had helped me the summer before when I 
was trying to find my way back to Ghijiga. I 
was now better able to talk with him than I had 
been at that time, especially as I had Snevaydoff 
for interpreter. After tea, I went outside to see 



CO 
•-i 



o 

B' 

CO 

CO 




'». 



* 8 




m 







SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 191 

how things were getting on. Four men were out 
among the herd, lassoing those intended for 
slaughter. They did it much after the fashion 
of cow-boys at home. Having secured an ani- 
mal, two men held it while a third drew out a 
long, keen knife and plunged it into the animal's 
heart. The poor beast would give one or two 
wild leaps, and then fall dead. The Koraks do 
not bleed their animals when they butcher them. 
This scene was enacted three times, each deer 
being intended as food for a single team of dogs. 
It took place in plain sight of the dogs, who 
leaped in their collars, and yelled applause at 
every stroke of the knife. 

The men's work ended with killing the deer, 
and the women and children followed, the 
former with sharp knives, and the latter with 
bowls. It was their part of the work to skin and 
cut up the dead deer. With a deft stroke, they 
ripped up the belly and drew out the entrails, 
being very careful to leave all the coagulated 
blood in the abdominal cavity. When the viscera 
had all been removed, the carcass was tipped up, 
and the blood was caught in the bowls, and car- 
ried to the dogs. The tongue and the leg-bones 
were removed and laid aside for home use, and 
all the rest of the carcass went to the dogs. 

As the women were skinning the deer, I no- 
ticed that every few moments they would lean 



192 IN SEARCH OF A 

down and tear off, with their teeth, little round 
protuberances which grew on the under side of 
the skin. These were an inch long by a quarter 
of an inch thick, and were bedded in the skin, and 
surrounded with fat. They proved to be bots, 
formed by a fly that is the special torment of the 
deer in summer. On one skin I counted more 
than four hundred of them. A little child came 
up and offered me a handful. I found that 
they are considered a delicacy by the natives. 
The flies deposit minute eggs in the skin in mid- 
summer, and the larva lies under the skin, im- 
bedded in fat. The following spring the deer 
is tormented with itching, and rubs against any- 
thing it can find, and so liberates the larva, which 
comes forth in the shape of a fly, an inch in 
length, only to repeat the same operation. It is 
a marvelous provision of nature that teaches the 
fly to seek the only place where its larvae can be 
kept warm and safe during the terrible cold of 
winter. 

When the last deer had been skinned, the men 
brought axes and chopped the carcasses into 
equal portions, each dog receiving a good ten 
pounds. When I went back to the yourta I left 
them snarling and growling over their meal, like 
so many wolves. 

The yourtas of these natives are covered with 
deerhides. The hair is cut down to a quarter of 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 193 

an inch in length, and is put on the outside. The 
construction of the frame-work of the yourta is 
very ingenious, and is the result of centuries of 
experimenting. They require no guy-ropes to 
keep them erect, but the frame-work of poles is 
so constructed and so braced on the inside that 
they resist the most violent wind. After the 
poles are lashed in place by the women the deer- 
hides are fastened over them separately, not 
sewed together; for this would make it difficult 
to move readily. At the top there is, of course, 
the usual exit for the smoke. 

The yourta that I entered was about thirty- 
five feet in diameter and fourteen feet high, and 
divided, by means of skin curtains, into eight lit- 
tle booths or apartments, each of which could be 
entirely closed, to secure privacy. These little 
booths are arranged around the side of the 
yourta, and each one is occupied by an entire 
family. The booths are eight feet long, five feet 
high, and six feet wide, and are heated only by 
lamps. The great fire in the center of the yourta 
is not primarily for heat, but for cooking pur- 
poses, all the families using it in common. The 
various kettles are hung over the fire by means 
of wooden hooks. The food is either boiled or 
eaten raw. They do not seem to know the use 
of the frying-pan. 

The main door of the yourta is formed by 



194 IN SEARCH OF A 

two flaps of deer skin, an inner and an outer 
one, which gives the effect of a storm-door. 
The dogs generally huddle between the two, 
and occasionally one of them sneaks into 
the yourta itself, only to be promptly kicked 
out. 

Our dinner consisted of boiled deer ribs, sticks 
of frozen marrow, and half -digested moss, taken 
from the stomach of the deer. This last was 
cooked in seal oil, and looked much like spinach. 
I found some difficulty in bringing myself to eat 
it, but I craved vegetable food so keenly that at 
last I was able to overcome my repulsion, and 
found it not so bad after all. The reindeer, 
therefore, furnishes the Korak with meat, cloth- 
ing, shelter, and vegetable food. The dinner 
was served on wooden plates, and conveyed to 
the mouth with fingers, except that for the 
" spinach " they had spoons carved from the 
horn of the mountain-sheep. The host persisted 
in offering me the daintiest lumps of fat in his 
fingers ; and I accepted them. In that far north- 
ern latitude, we all craved fat or any kind of oil. 
The women did not eat with us. The host and I 
sat in one of the little booths, while the women 
remained outside by the fire. The children, how- 
ever, could not resist the temptation to " peek," 
and they lay on the ground, looking up from be- 
low the edge of the skin partitions, like a row of 



CD 

5' 



en 

CD 



a - 

O 

crq 
o 

p- 








SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 197 

detached heads, with the eyes blinking solemnly 
at me. 

After we had eaten, I made them all happy 
by sending SnevaydofF out to the sledge for 
some tea, and some broken bits of sugar. The 
host brought out the family treasures, the gaudy 
cups which I have heretofore mentioned. The 
women licked the saucers, and wiped them with 
moss, after which tea was served. 

Strange is the effect of environment; a year 
previous, no inducement could have made me use 
those cups after seeing them cleansed in that 
fashion. Was I, after all, a savage, and civili- 
zation but a thin veneer? I found myself at 
times looking at life from the standpoint of 
these people. I was thinking, dreaming, and 
talking in my sleep in my polyglot language. 
At times I would talk to myself in English, just 
to enjoy the sound of it. I had with me no books, 
except a Bible, which was in my valise, but the 
print was too fine to read, except with a good 
light. Action was my only salvation. Had I 
been compelled to stay in one place I should 
have feared for my reason. 

After two or three cups, every one perspired 
freely, and off came one garment after another, 
until the men were entirely naked, and the wo- 
men were naked to the waist. When we had im- 
bibed ten or a dozen cups, the kettle was replen- 



198 IN SEARCH OF A 

ished with hot water, and handed out to those 
in the main part of the yourta. I gave each one 
a lump of sugar to make him happy, and then, 
leaning back among the skins, lighted my pipe, 
and had a long talk with my host, during the 
course of which I elicited much curious informa- 
tion. 

At bedtime, two of the smaller children were 
put in tiny cradles, swung from the top of the 
yourta. The compartment in which I slept held 
eight people that night. The lamp was left 
burning all night, for the sake of its warmth. As 
far as I could discover, there was an utter lack 
of ventilation. 

When I crawled out of that noisome hole the 
next morning, I found that the dogs were very 
uneasy; they scratched the snow continually 
with their hind feet. This was a sure sign that 
one of the dreaded storms — a porgo — was com- 
ing. As I had experienced one of them, I h#d no 
wish to be caught out in another, so I determined 
to wait where I was till it blew over. By ten 
o'clock it was raging, and for three mortal days 
there was no stirring from that village. Just 
before the storm came on I secured some photo- 
graphs of the reindeer. They were very tame in- 
deed, and would come up to me and smell of my 
garments, and would even lick them, hoping to 
get some salt. I had to carry a short stick to 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 199 

keep them from pressing too close upon me. I 
walked in among the herd, which numbered 
about ten thousand, and watched them eat. 
They would paw away the snow until they 
reached the moss, which lay about ten inches be- 
low the surface, and then, kneeling down, would 
dig it out with their teeth. The moss is about 
ten inches thick, and is a loose, spongy mass of 
yegetation. It will not bear the weight of a 
man, the foot sinking through it. It forms a 
most excellent food for deer, but horses will not 
eat it. The Tunguse deer, which is larger than 
the Korak, eats only moss, but the Korak deer 
will eat either moss or grass. 

These nomads have regular roads to and from 
the coast, and generation after generation they 
follow the same old beaten tracks. In Decem- 
ber, they are farthest from the sea. Once in two, 
three, or four weeks, according to the supply of 
moss and the size of the herd, they break camp 
and move off on the trail. Late in December 
they turn, and gradually work their way back, 
so that by the time that June and the mosquitos 
have arrived they are near the sea. The deer 
eagerly lick the salt from the rocks, and even 
drink the sea water. They stay on the coast until 
late in August, when the frosts kill off the mos- 
quitos, and then they move off inland for an- 
other winter. In summer, the deer grow very 



200 IN SEARCH OF A 

poor and weak, for they find little moss near the 
coast. All along the shores of Bering Sea thou- 
sands of deer can be counted every summer. A 
few years ago, when the United States Govern- 
ment wished to secure some reindeer herds for 
Alaska, they sent all tKe way to Lapland, and 
imported the deer at enormous expense, took 
them across the American continent by rail, and 
shippeoTTIiem by steamer to Alaska. By the 
time they arrived, those that had not died 
must have cost an enormous sum. If the gov- 
ernment had sent a steamer a single day's run 
across Bering Sea, it could have purchased fifty 
thousand reindeer right on the coast at a cost of 
one rouble, or fifty cents, apiece. Coin cannot 
be used in purchasing these animals, for the na- 
tives do not understand nor use our coinage, but 
they can be obtained by barter at the rate of one 
rouble's worth of tobacco a head. Some rich na- 
tives might accept a few silver coins to hammer 
up into buttons for their children's clothes, but 
not as a medium of exchange. 

The rutting season is in July, and fights be- 
tween the male deer are not uncommon. But 
most of the male deer are gelded, only enough 
being left for breeding purposes. The natives 
watch their herds carefully, both night and day, 
but without the use of dogs. The principal 
enemy of the deer is the great gray Siberian 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 203 ^^ 

wol f, which stands as high as a SaintjBgfflftrd 
dog. One of these wily fellows will dash into 
a herd, "cut out" three or four deer, and run 
them off into the wilderness. When a deer 
grows tired the wolf runs alongside, and, seiz- 
ing it by the nose, brings it to the ground and 
despatches it. 

The Koraks eat the hoofs after burning them 
on the fire and thus setting free the gelatin. 
The weapons used by the Koraks, and the Tun- 
guses as well, are the modern rifles, or in default 
of these the regular old-fashioned muzzle-loader. 
They do a little trapping, but only for sport. 
The little boys take out the knuckle-bones from 
wolves' feet and set them up like ninepins, and 
pitch stones at them. Even the grown men 
sometimes indulge in this sport. It is not their 
custom to use the reindeer under the saddle. 
They do not even carry a pack, as among the 
Tunguses. Even in summer the Korak prefers 
to carry his goods on a sledge, as many as 
eight deer sometimes being required to draw the 

_ . a. III 

load. 

There is one physical feature which helps to 
determine the geographical division between the . 
" dog " people and the " deer " people; and this 
is the depth of the snowfall. For instance, on 
the peninsula of Kamchatka there are many 
places where the snow is so deep that the deer 

10 



204 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 

could not dig down to the moss in winter. All 
through the northwestern portion of the penin- 
sula, however, where the land is occupied mostly 
by Koraks, the snow is not so deep, and the keep- 
ing of deer is possible. 



CHAPTER XIII 

HABITS AND CUSTOMS OF THE KORAKS 

The hour-glass houses — Their curious construction — The 
natives prove to be both hospitable and filthy — Dialects 
of Dog Koraks and Deer Koraks — Some unpleasant hab- 
its — How they reckon time — Making liquor out of mush- 
rooms — Curious marriage customs — Clothes of the na- 
tives — Queer notions of a deity — Jealousy of the wan- 
dering Xoraks — Thieving a virtue and childbirth a social 
function. 

WHEN the storm was over, we harnessed the 
dogs and continued our journey. Seven 
days of ideal sledging brought us to Kaminaw, 
a Korak village at the extreme northern point of 
the northeastern arm of the Okhotsk Sea, where 
I was to discharge my Russian dog-teams, and 
secure others from the natives. My first view of 
the village was from the summit of a hill half a 
mile away. I saw what resembled fifty huge 
hour-glasses set on the plain, which, on a nearer 
approach, turned out to be ten or twelve feet 
high. As we drew near, the village came swarm- 
ing out with a pack of mongrel curs at their heels ; 
and over the edge of each hour-glass house ap- 

205 



206 IN SEARCH OF A 

peared the heads of the women and children, all 
eager to get a glimpse of such a novel sight as a 
foreign face. Over each house was suspended a 
frozen dog. These were impaled under the chin 
on the sharp end of a pole, and lifted high in the 
air. I learned later that this was a form of sacri- 
fice to the Fish God, and was intended to insure 
a good run of fish the next season. 

As I tumbled out of my sledge, I was sur- 
rounded by the filthiest lot of natives I had yet 
seen. Their furs were old and mangy, and the 
hair was worn off in spots. The people were 
kind and pleasant, and seemed bent on shaking 
hands with me. I was pressed on all sides with 
invitations to enter one and another of the curi- 
ous houses. As I stood there, debating what I 
should do, the chief of the village elbowed his 
way through the crowd, took me by the hand, 
and led me to the largest of the huts. In order 
to enter we had to go up a ladder to the height 
of ten feet or more. This ladder was a log of 
driftwood, split down the center, and provided 
with little holes in which to put the toes in as- 
cending. These natives have very small feet, 
and I found the holes in the ladder too small to 
insert my toes, but I managed to scramble to the 
top. I was now standing on the edge of an in- 
verted octagonal cone, made of logs lashed to- 
gether, the inside or crater of the affair, which 



< 
3 



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ft) 

O 

c 

3 

X 



X 

o 

5 

CD 
C 



o 
o 




SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 209 

was eighteen feet across, sloping down at an 
angle of about fifteen degrees to the center. At 
that point there was a hole leading down to the 
interior of the house. The hole also sufficed for 
a chimney, and to enter the house one had to go 
down a ladder through the smoke. Santa Claus 
is said to come from the north, and it is evidently 
among this people that he originated, for here 
everybody enters his house by way of the 
chimney. 

This flaring line of logs protects the opening 
of the house from being covered up with drifting 
snow. This is the main reason for building in 
this fashion. Moreover, the high scaffolding 
thus provided is an excellent storehouse, upon 
which all sorts of things can be placed without 
fear of molestation from wild animals. I saw 
here a miscellaneous collection of implements, 
dog-harness, oars, fishing-tackle, and firewood. 
I followed the chief down the ladder through the 
smoke. The hole was two feet wide and three 
feet long. I found myself in a semi-subterra- 
nean apartment, thirty feet in diameter and fif- 
teen feet high. As we stood on the floor, our 
heads were about level with the general surface 
of the ground. The frame was strongly built of 
timbers, evidently driftwood; but everything 
was black with age and smoke. I found it so 
warm that I had to remove my furs. The room 



210 IN SEARCH OF A 

was very dimly illuminated with what little light 
filtered through the hole in the roof; and even 
this was partially obscured by the smoke that was 
always passing up and out. 

As soon as my eyes became accustomed to the 
perpetual twilight of the place, I perceived that 
around the apartment ran a raised wooden plat- 
form, one foot high and six broad, on which lay 
piles of deerskins. The women were busy clear- 
ing off a place for me, shaking out the skins and 
choosing the best ones for my accommodation. 
With native courtesy, which had no stiffness 
about it, the old gentleman led me to my place, 
sat down beside me, and began to talk. I pointed 
to my ears to show that I did not understand 
him. 

There seemed to be little difference between 
the dress of the men and the women, excepting 
that the wide " bloomers " of the women were 
made of alternate strips of black and white deer- 
skin. Their clothes were indescribably old and 
shabby and dirty, and their faces were anything 
but clean; but for all that, there were some very 
comely people among them. The women wore 
their hair in two braids, wound about the head, 
and fastened at the top in front. 

In these rooms one would naturally expect the 
worst in the matter of ventilation, and I was sur- 
prised to find that it was exceptionally good. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 211 

They are enabled to arrange an air-shaft so that 
it enters the room, near the floor, on one side. 
The draft, made by the heat of the fire rising 
through the smoke -hole, causes pure air to be 
drawn through this ventilating shaft. In fact, 
there seemed to be no reason why these dwellings 
should not be made perfectly comfortable and 
sanitary. 

The women appeared to be very busy, and 
even the children were industriously making 
thread from the sinews that lie near the backbone 
of the deer. 

In this house I found an explosive harpoon 
that the natives had taken from the body of a 
whale. It had been fired from the deck of some 
whaling-vessel, and had been deeply embedded in 
the flesh of the animal. It bore no name. 

The Koraks have two dialects, one of which is 
spoken by the Dog Koraks, and the other spoken 
by the Deer Koraks, but the slight variations are 
not marked enough to constitute a serious barrier 
to communication between them. All these 
tribes, without doubt, belong to the great Tura- 
nian family, and are allied to the Mongols, Os- 
tiaks, Samoyeds, and other tribes of northern 
Asia. The evidence for this is both physiological 
and philological. 

The writer before quoted says truly of these 
people that " their manner of living is slovenly 



212 IN SEARCH OF A 

to the last degree; they never wash their hands 
or face, nor cut their nails; everything about 
them smells of fish ; they never comb their heads, 
but both men and women plait their hair in two 
braids; when any hair starts out they sew it in 
with threads to make it lie close ; and, as a result, 
they have such a quantity of lice that they can 
scrape them off by handfuls." Time seems not to 
have weaned them from these disgusting habits. 

These people reckon ten months to the year, 
not by reference to the changes of the moon, but 
by the order of special occurrences which take 
place each year, with sufficient regularity for the 
purpose. The months in their order are: Puri- 
fier of Sins, Breaker of Hatchets, Beginning of 
Heat, Time of the Long Day, Preparing Month, 
Red-Fish Month, White-Fish Month, Kaiko 
Fish Month, Great White-Fish Month, and 
Leaf -Falling Month. Others name them as fol- 
lows: River-Freezing Month, Hunting Month, 
Purifier of Sins, Breaker of Hatchets, Long 
Day Month, Sea Beavers' Puppying Month, 
Sea Calves' Puppying Month, Tame Deer Foal- 
ing Month, Wild Deer Foaling Month, Begin- 
ning of Fishing. 

A peculiar custom sometimes to be noted 
among these people is that of drinking a kind 
of liquor made from a large species of mush- 
room. The effect is, in some respects, similar 



o 

5* 



3 




SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 215 

to that produced by the use of hashish. At first 
the imbiber shakes as with the ague; and pres- 
ently he begins to rave as if in delirium. Some 
jump and dance and sing, while others cry out 
as if in agony. A small hole looks to them like 
a bottomless pit, and a pool of water as broad as 
the sea. These effects are produced only when 
the beverage is used to excess; a small quantity 
has much the same effect as a moderate amount 
of alcoholic liquor. Curiously enough, after re- 
covering from one of these debauches, they claim 
that all the antics performed were by command 
of the mushroom. The use of it is not unat- 
tended with danger, for unless a man is well 
looked after he is likely to destroy himself. The 
Koraks sometimes take this drug in order to 
work themselves up to the point of murdering an 
enemy. Three or four of the mushrooms is a 
moderate dose, but when one wants to get the 
full effect one takes ten or twelve. 

When a native resolves to marry he looks out 
for a bride, not in his own village, but in a neigh- 
boring one. When he finds a girl who pleases 
him, he tells her parents that he is desirous of 
serving them, and, during this period of proba- 
tion, he works most industriously in order to 
make a good impression. At last he asks per- 
mission to steal the girl. If his suit is looked 
upon with disfavor, he is paid for the service he 



216 IN SEARCH OF A 

has rendered and sent away, but if he is accep- 
table to the girl and to her parents and relatives, 
the permission is given. He then seeks an op- 
portunity of rinding the girl alone, which is no 
easy matter, for she is supposed to be guarded 
by the women of the village. Besides, the girl 
is covered with two or three coats, and is wrapped 
about with fish-nets and straps, so that motion 
is almost impossible. If the young man succeeds 
in rinding her alone, or in company with only 
one or two women, he seizes her and begins tear- 
ing off her garments, for this constitutes the 
ceremony of marriage. But this is not an easy 
thing to do; for, though the girl herself makes 
little resistance, such other women as are about 
fall upon the would-be groom without mercy, 
and beat and scratch him and use every means 
to prevent him from accomplishing his purpose. 
If, however, he is successful in tearing off her 
garments, he immediately walks away from her, 
whereupon she gently calls him back, and the 
ceremony is complete. It seldom happens that 
the young man succeeds the first time, and in- 
stances are known where a man has tried for sev- 
eral years to secure his bride, without success. 

When successful, the groom carries off his 
bride to his own village without any ceremony; 
but after some time they return tc the bride's 
home, and a marriage-feast is celebrated, some- 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 217 

what after the following manner: the bridal 
party, including the bridegroom's friends, ap- 
proach to within a hundred paces of the village 
from which the bride has been taken. They sing 
and go through certain mystic rites with a fish's 
head wrapped in tow and carried by an old 
woman. A coat of sheepskin is put on the bride, 
and several images are hung about her till she 
can hardly bear up under the load. A boy of the 
village comes out and leads the bride in by the 
hand. When she comes to the hut of her parents, 
a strap is tied around her, and by this she is let 
down into the underground house. The fish- 
head is laid on the floor at the foot of the ladder, 
and the bride and all who follow step on it, after 
which it is thrown into the fire. The bride is 
stripped of all her superfluous ornaments, and 
the company take their places about the room. 
The bridegroom builds a fire and prepares the 
food, which had been brought for the purpose, 
and entertains the people of the village. The 
next day, the host entertains the visiting com- 
pany, after which every one goes home, except 
the bride and groom, who remain to serve her 
father for a time. 

The dress of the men differs but slightly from 
that of the women. Both wear the same kind of 
upper garment, with the skirts either cut off 
an equal length all around, or with the back part 



218 IN SEARCH OF A 

longer than the front. The women have an un- 
der garment which they usually wear at home. 
It consists of a combination of trousers and 
waistcoat, the trousers being tied about the leg 
below the knee, and the waistcoat being tied with 
a cord. As might be supposed, the covering 
for feet and ankles is a most important matter 
in this far northern country. In the summer- 
time, when the ground is generally one wide 
marsh, they wear the skins of seals, with the hair 
turned out, but often make their leggings of the 
skin of reindeer legs. The very finest foot-wear 
is made with the sole of white sealskin, and the 
upper of fine dyed leather from the hind quar- 
ters of a white dogskin. The part that incases 
the calf of the leg is made of dressed leather or 
dyed sealskin. The tops are always richly em- 
broidered with silk thread. If a young man is 
adorned with these shoes, immediately it is con- 
eluded that he is in search of a wife. 

Since the complete conquest of these parts by 
the Russians war has been practically unknown, 
but during the process of conquest the natives 
made a stubborn resistance. They never fought 
in the open, but always by stratagem. A com- 
pany of Cossacks, arriving at a village, would 
be hospitably received, the tribute would be paid, 
and large presents made in addition ; but when 
all suspicion had been lulled to rest the Cossacks 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 219 

were likely to wake in the night to find them- 
selves in the midst of flames. If any one suc- 
ceeded in breaking through the flames, a worse 
fate awaited him; for then he was slowly tor- 
tured to death by burning, or cut to pieces and 
disemboweled while yet alive. If the natives 
were in strong force, upon hearing of the ap- 
proach of the Cossacks they would retire to some 
high place, which they would strongly fortify 
and hold as best they could against the invaders. 
If unable to hold their position, they would first 
cut the throats of the women and children, and 
then throw themselves over a precipice, or rush 
upon the enemy to be ruthlessly cut down. 

These people have indistinct notions about a 
deity, but they render him no homage. On the 
contrary, they treat his name with the utmost 
irreverence, and relate stories about him that 
rival the scandals of Olympus. They blame him 
for making so many steep hills, so many rapid 
rivers, and for sending so many storms. Some- 
times they raise a pillar in the plain and bind 
it around with rags, and whenever they pass, 
throw at it pieces of fish or other food. But it 
is noted that they give nothing that they can use 
themselves — only the tails of fish or other refuse. 
Besides these pillars, there are other places that 
they reckon sacred, such as smoking mountains, 
hot springs, and certain forests, all of which they 



220 IN SEARCH OF A 

imagine to be inhabited by devils, whom they 
fear much more than the gods. 

A Russian who lived for a long time among 
these people says of them: 

All their beliefs concerning both gods and devils are 
certainly very simple and ridiculous; however, it shows 
that they endeavor to account for the existence of every- 
thing as far as they are able ; and some of them try to 
penetrate into the thoughts even of the birds and fishes. 
But when once a belief is established they never trouble 
themselves with inquiring whether the thing be possible 
or not. Hence their religion depends entirely upon an- 
cient tradition, which they believe without questioning. 
They have no notion of a supreme being that influences 
their happiness or misery, but hold that every man's 
good or bad fortune depends upon himself. The world, 
they believe, is eternal, the soul immortal, and that it 
shall again be joined to the body and live eternally, 
subject to the same fatigues and troubles as in this pres- 
ent life, with this difference only: that they shall have 
a greater abundance of all the necessaries of life. Even 
the smallest animals, they believe, will rise again and 
dwell under the earth. They think the earth is flat, and 
that under it there is a firmament like ours; and under 
that firmament another earth like ours; in which when 
we have summer they have winter, and when we have 
winter they have summer. With regard to future re- 
wards and punishments they believe that in the other 
world the rich will be poor and the poor will be rich. 
Their notions of vice and virtue are as extraordinary 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 221 

as those they entertain of God. They believe every- 
thing lawful that procures them the satisfaction of their 
wishes and passions, and think that only is sinful from 
which they apprehend danger or ruin ; so that they 
reckon neither murder, suicide, or adultery, oppression, 
nor the like any wickedness: on the contrary, they look 
upon it as a mortal sin to save any one that is drowning, 
because, according to their notions, whoever saves such 
an one will soon be drowned himself. They reckon it 
likewise a sin to bathe in or to drink hot water, or to go 
up to the burning mountains. 

They worship several animals from which they ap- 
prehend danger. They offer fire at the holes of sables 
and foxes; when fishing they entreat the whales or sea- 
horses not to overturn their boats; and in hunting they 
beseech the bears and wolves not to hurt them. 

The wandering Koraks are extremely jealous, 
and sometimes kill their wives upon the merest 
suspicion. Adultery is punished by the death 
of both parties. This extreme jealousy on the 
part of husbands accounts for the fact that the 
women take no care of their persons, and are al- 
ways dirty and repulsive. They say that their 
husbands believe that any attempt at personal 
adornment would be a sign that they were wav- 
ering in their affections, for their husbands can 
love them without any such adornment. With 
the Koraks who live in the " hour-glass " houses 
the case is reversed, for they are extremely care- 



222 IN SEARCH OF A 

less of the virtue of their wives and daughters; 
so much so, that frequently they lend either the 
one or the other to their guests or special friends. 
A refusal of this civility they consider the great- 
est affront. 

Among all these tribes, except the Kamcha- 
dales, theft is considered reputable so long as one 
does not steal from people of his own tribe. 
When discovered, theft is punished severely, but 
only because the thief was not clever enough to 
escape detection. A Tchuktche girl may not 
marry until she has proved her dexterity in this 
line. Murder is not looked upon as particularly 
heinous, unless one kills a fellow-tribesman. In 
that case the relatives of the dead avenge the 
crime. Consanguineous marriages are ex- 
tremely common. A man often takes a cousin, 
an aunt, or even a mother-in-law as his wife. 
In fact, any relative except his mother or daugh- 
ter may become his wife. 

As soon as a child is born they set aside for it 
a number of reindeer, but the child cannot claim 
them till he has reached maturity. In naming a 
child, they often go through a certain formality. 
Having set up two sticks, they tie a string across 
the top, and from the middle hang a stone. 
Then they repeat the names of the child's rela- 
tives, and, during the course of this recital, 
should the stone appear to shake or move, the 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 223 

name spoken at that moment is given to the child. 
Without doubt the most curious custom among 
these people is that childbirth is a public function, 
and the whole village may assemble to witness 
the event. 

The dead are commonly burned. The corpse 
is dressed in his finest clothes, and drawn to the 
place of cremation by his favorite deer. A great 
pile of wood is fired, and into the flames are 
thrown the dead man's arms and some of his 
household utensils. After this the deer are 
killed, and they, together with the man's body, 
are thrown upon the fire. A year later they 
bring to the place of cremation two young deer 
and a large number of deer horns, and, burying 
the latter, they make a pretense of sending a 
herd of deer to the dead man for his use in the 
nether world. 



11 



CHAPTER XIV 

OFF FOR BERING SEA THE TCHUKTCHES 

The Tchuktches are the Apaches of Siberia — Their hos- 
pitality to Americans and their hostility to Russians — 
Wherein my experiences differ from those of Mr. Harry 
DeWindt — Result of licking a piece of stone with the 
thermometer at 45° below zero — Konikly — Power of 
moral suasion in dealing with a rebellious Korak — The 
cure of a dying woman and the disgust of her husband — 
Poll-tax and the Tchuktches. 

IMMEDIATELY upon our arrival at the 
village of Kaminaw I began looking about 
for dog-teams to take me on the long trip 
around by the shore of Bering Sea. I found it 
very difficult to get good dogs there, but after 
four days of patient search I secured two strong 
young natives, each with a team of twelve dogs. 
I contracted with them to accompany me all 
the way from that point, a distance of over fif- 
teen hundred miles, for fifty pounds of tobacco 
and twenty pounds of sugar, all of which I paid 
in advance. 

Thus equipped I left Kaminaw, and pushed 

224 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 225 

toward the northeast, following the line of moun- 
tains, and examining the rivers and creeks, the 
canons and the gulches for the precious metal. 
We generally found Korak villages in which to 
lodge, but we suffered greatly with the excessive 
cold. Not infrequently we had to go without 
any fire at all, and at such times we found raw 
meat preferable to empty stomachs. 

The next few weeks we worked our way 
toward the coast, one day succeeding another in 
the monotonous iteration of camping and break- 
ing camp, and digging down into bed-rock in 
a fruitless search for paying gold. As we ap- 
proached the coast for the first time, we fell in 
with members of the Tchuktche tribe. This 
name is generally spelled Tchou-tchour, but I 
found the name invariably pronounced T'chuk- 
tche, the apostrophe signifying that the initial 
T is pronounced separately. These people are 
generally supposed to be a rather ugly lot, and 
the Russians have never been able to subdue 
them as they have the other Siberian tribes. 
They are the Apaches of Siberia, and when at- 
tacked they retire to their mountain fastnesses, 
where it is next to impossible to reach them. 
They are purely nomadic, and subsist solely 
upon their immense herds of reindeer. They 
are much taller and broader in the shoulder 
than is characteristic of any of the other tribes 



226 IN SEARCH OF A 

that I have seen. Many of them stand five feet 
and eleven inches. The women, too, are tall and 
well-formed. 

I had been warned by the Russian authorities 
at Ghijiga to be on my guard when I fell in with 
these fierce people, but I found the warning en- 
tirely unnecessary. They had a clear knowledge 
of the difference between a Russian and an 
American. Their preference for the American 
lies in the fact that the Russians have tried to 
make them pay tribute, and have carried on a 
desultory war with them for fifty years, while 
the American whalers bring them articles of 
trade of which they stand in need. They took 
the greatest interest in me, and did everything 
in their power to make me comfortable. In their 
sledges they would take me on long drives up 
the water-courses to look for gold, and in count- 
less other ways showed their good will. They 
were the only people in Siberia with whom we 
could not bargain for meat or transport. They 
simply would not listen to my offers of pay, and 
it was only with difficulty that I could get them 
to take presents of tobacco or tea. They smil- 
ingly told me that I had better keep all those 
things till I went south into Kamchatka, " where 
all the people are thieves." I felt so safe among 
the Tchuktches that never once did I take my 
guns from the pack and bring them into the tent 



i*.^ ■• »^nj 







One of the Tchuktches — an unconquered Race. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 229 

with me. One instance will illustrate the manner 
in which these good people treated me. At one 
point I had to take a three-days' trip over the 
mountains. It required twenty-five reindeer 
and five drivers. The village chief insisted on 
carrying my baggage, leaving my dog-teams to 
come on behind, unloaded. For this service I 
succeeded in making him take twenty cartridges. 

Mr. Harry DeWindt crossed over from the 
American side, and reported later that he had 
been captured by the natives, and, after under- 
going great hardships, was rescued by a man-of- 
war. In view of my experiences among this peo- 
ple it is very difficult to understand the treatment 
that Mr. DeWindt received. I traveled all 
along the coast to the same places visited by him, 
and was always treated as an honored guest by 
the natives. On the whole, they are the finest 
race of savages that it has ever been my lot to 
meet. 

The trip had been barren of results, as far as 
gold was concerned. Not long after leaving 
Kaminaw I struck a sandstone formation, and 
lost all traces of the yellow metal. And now I 
was approaching the coast, though I had not as 
yet caught sight of it. On the eighth of March 
we reached the foot of a range, and one of the 
Koraks, pointing to a distant summit, said that 
from that point we would be able to see the 



230 IN SEARCH OF A' 

ocean. With renewed courage we pushed on. 
Each of the dogs wore on his feet soft deerskin 
moccasins, and the teams were being very care- 
fully handled, for they were sadly worn by the 
long journey. They now needed constant urg- 
ing. We no longer rode on the sledges, but 
walked beside them, pulling on the bow to relieve 
the dogs. When the hills were too steep, we had 
to double up the teams and make two trips, 
which lengthened the journey materially. Dur- 
ing this period I was compelled to keep my beard 
trimmed close to my face, because I found, by 
hard experience, that my mustache would freeze 
down to my beard in such fashion that I had a 
mass of ice depending from my face, which had 
frequently to be cut away with a knife. In or- 
dinary cold weather a beard is a protection from 
the cold, but under those circumstances I found 
that it added greatly to my discomfort. 

Natives will pay more for short-haired dogs, 
for, in the case of the long-haired dog, the moist 
breath, as it flows back from his nostrils, soon 
covers him with a mass of icicles. With the 
short-haired dog this is impossible. 

One day, shortly before we reached the coast, 
we camped at noon, and, about half a mile away, 
I saw a peculiar outcrop of white rock. Think- 
ing that it might be worth prospecting, I put on 
my snow-shoes and walked over to it, while the 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 231 

men were getting dinner ready. The ther- 
mometer stood at forty-five below zero. I found 
that there was only a soda-like incrustation on 
the rock. And then, without thinking of the 
after effects, I took up a piece, about two 
pounds in weight, and put it to my mouth to 
taste it. Of course my tongue stuck to it, and 
an excruciating pain shot through that organ. 
I had taken a generous lick, and the whole sur- 
face of my tongue was fastened firmly to the 
stone. I managed to get back to the camp, still 
holding the stone to my face. For a moment, 
the men gazed at me in wonder ; then one of them 
hurried to bring a kettle of warm water, which 
he attempted to dash in my face, but it did not 
reach the right spot. For what he next did I 
shall be grateful always. He took a large 
mouthful of the warm water, and then, with 
careful aim, squirted it between the stone and my 
face, and we soon had the encumbrance removed. 
With it came away a piece of the skin of my 
tongue, as large as a silver quarter. This esca- 
pade was wholly inexcusable, as I had already 
had sad experience in handling naked guns with 
bare, moist hands, and all my weapons were 
wrapped in buckskin, with only the sights ex- 
posed. 

Our teams were now so exhausted that sev- 
eral of the dogs dropped out entirely, to crawl 



232 IN SEARCH OF A 

along after us as best they might. Looking 
back, from time to time, I could see them trying 
desperately to keep up, for they seemed to know 
that their only chance of life was to reach the 
camp before night, to get some of the dog-food, 
which was running very low. They were quite 
useless in the collar, for they not only did not 
draw, but held back the other dogs who were 
able to pull. I had started with fourteen good, 
strong animals, but now was reduced to eight; 
and even these looked like skeletons. However, 
these eight were game to the backbone, and 
would 'pull till they fell dead in the harness. 
" Old Red," still my right-hand dog, would occa- 
sionally look over his shoulder with pitiful eyes 
when I called, " Hyuk, hyuk!" and then he 
would put down his head and strain at his collar, 
while his breath came in coughing gasps. The 
ravens followed us for the last five days, seeming 
to know that if the dogs gave out they would 
have a feast. As for us men, we were in no dan- 
ger, for we could easily have walked to the coast. 
At last, one memorable day, we dragged our- 
selves to that last summit, and there, before us, 
were the waters of the sea, stretching out far to 
the east, with the pack-ice extending fifteen 
miles out from the shore. Below us, ten miles 
away, we could see the black dots that stood for 
the " hour-glass " huts, where we knew there was 



to 



o 

W 
5 

o 

<rt- 



3 

<n 

<rf 

i— '• 

crq 

n- 

o 

w 

x 




§1 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 235 

warmth, food, and rest for ourselves and our 
dogs. Since that day I have been able to sym- 
pathize keenly with Xenophon and his ten thou- 
sand, when they caught sight of the waters of 
the Euxine, and raised that glad shout of " Tha- 
lassa, thalassa ! " 

Though the dogs were very weak and worn, 
we went in with a rush, as usual. But the mo- 
ment we stopped, the poor fellows dropped in 
their tracks and went to sleep, without a thought 
of food. Their utter exhaustion was due to the 
fact that for the last ten days we had been cross- 
ing a stretch of uninhabited country, and it had 
been impossible to secure for them the necessary 
amount of food. 

We were much relieved to find ourselves once 
more in " civilization," and we were in no hurry 
to move on. The people received us so hospita- 
bly, and with such genuine kindness, that we 
spent a week with them, resting and getting the 
dogs into condition again. Every day we were 
regaled with frozen fish, dried fish, dainty bits 
of walrus blubber, and frozen blueberries. 

Some of the people of this tribe have curly 
hair, a thing that I had not seen before in Sibe- 
ria. They speak with one of those peculiar 
" clicks " that are so baffling to the Western 
tongue, and which I had always supposed were 
confined to the languages of Africa. 



236 IN SEARCH OF A 

The village was composed of a mixed race in 
whose veins was mingled Tchuktche, Korak, and 
Kamchatkan blood, in about equal proportions. 

On our second day there I was glad to see the 
dogs that had dropped behind dragging them- 
selves in. They were tied up in their old places, 
and fed generously on seal blubber and hot fish- 
soup, which might be called a kind of fish and 
oil chowder. They were all suffering badly 
from the need of fatty foods, and it was interest- 
ing to see the avidity with which they would bolt 
huge pieces of clear blubber. At the end of our 
week of rest, they were all fat again, their feet 
were healed up, and they were eager for the 
road once more. Some of the dogs that had 
shown less endurance than the others were 
traded off and better ones secured. The best 
medium of exchange seemed to be the little 
skeins of sewing-silk which I had been careful 
to bring. Skeins that were bought in Vladivos- 
tok for two and a half cents apiece readily 
brought a dollar here. I would have sold it 
cheaper, but they pushed the price of the dogs 
up from five dollars to twenty, and I was obliged 
to follow suit. The silk was in all the colors of 
the rainbow; it was a study to see the faces of 
these natives as they devoured the gaudy stuff 
with their eyes, especially the women. They use 
the silk to embroider the bottoms of their fur 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 237 

cloaks, some of which are true works of art. 
Traders have been known to pay as high as two 
hundred dollars for a single coat. The amount 
of needlework on them is simply enormous. 
Sometimes they cut out little pieces of skin a 
quarter of an inch . square, of all colors and 
shades, and make a genuine mosaic of them, and 
around the bottom of each garment is a wide 
fringe of silk. The natives laughed at the prices 
that I asked, and good-naturedly expostulated 
with me, saying that they could get the same 
thing in Ghijiga much cheaper; to which I 
laughingly answered that they were at liberty to 
go and get it. Whenever I left a house, I pre- 
sented the women each with a few needles, which 
in that country is a very substantial tip. 

This village was not composed of pure Tchuk- 
tches, and these mongrel people are looked 
down upon by the clean Tchuktche stock, who 
frequently raid them and carry off their best- 
looking women. 

It was now my purpose to turn south along 
the coast, and examine the beach sands and the 
rivers running into Bering Sea, as far down as 
the neck of the Kamchatkan peninsula, or 
Baron Koff Bay. As I was still in a sandstone 
country, there seemed little likelihood of find- 
ing gold in the beach sands, and unless the geo- 
logic formation changed as I went south, I 



238 IN SEARCH OF A 

should push right on without stopping, except 
to rest. 

Bidding good-by to the friends who had 
treated us so kindly, we set out one morning, on 
our way southward, keeping to the smooth snow 
just above the beach line. Once, and only once, 
I tried to shorten the journey by crossing an arm 
of the sea on the ice. Here I had my first taste 
of what it must be like to attempt to reach the 
Pole across the frozen sea. Not once could I go 
fifty feet in a straight line. It was an un- 
speakable jumble of hummocks and crevasses. 
We covered eight arduous miles that day, and 
the dogs were so exhausted that we had to stop 
two days to recuperate. Time and again, that 
miserable day, I got into the water up to my 
waist, which necessitated an immediate change 
of clothes. About once an hour the dogs would 
fall into the water and have to be hauled out, 
after which a tedious detour would be made to 
find a more likely route across the wilderness of 
ice. 

The sixth day out we reached Baron KofT 
Bay. It is a long, narrow inlet lying southeast 
and northwest; and at its head I found the little 
Korak village where it was decided that I should 
secure a guide to take me to the sulphur depos- 
its, which were supposed to exist in an extinct 
volcano in the vicinity. These people were of 




. 






Kassegan, half-caste Russian trader, and Korak wife, 
living at Boeta, Baron Koff Bay, Kamchatka. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 241 

the same mixed blood as those of the village I 
had so lately left, but they did not live in the 
hour-glass houses. They simply had the under- 
ground room, with a hole leading down into it. 
The one I entered was fifteen feet wide by ten 
in height. 

In this village seal-catching is the principal 
pursuit. The seal is such an important animal 
to these people that they go through a peculiar 
ceremony every year in its honor — a ceremony 
that is characteristically childish and built upon 
superstitions. 

Near this point is an immense deposit of coal 
which had been discovered by a Russian man-of- 
war some twenty years before. The coal is of 
poor quality, but could be used for steaming if 
necessary. The coal-measures come right down 
to the water's edge. In the cliff beside the water 
I found three veins of coal, with an aggregate 
thickness of eighty feet. 

This was a " dog " village, as distinguished 
from a " deer " village, and it was amusing to 
see half a dozen dogs lying about each of the 
entrance-holes of their underground houses, with 
their heads hanging over the edge, so that they 
could better appreciate the smell of food that 
rose with the smoke of the fire below. Of course 
I was always on the lookout for good dogs, and 
while I was in this village I came upon the finest 



242 IN SEARCH OF A 

specimen of a Siberian sledge-dog that it was 
ever my fortune to see. He was tawny or light- 
brown in color, with a splendid head, back, and 
shoulders. Clean-limbed, muscular, and straight- 
eared, his tail curved up over his back in the most 
approved style. He whipped our best dog in 
less than a minute. His name was Konikly, 
meaning " One of Two," and his stuffed skin 
can be seen to-day in the American Museum of 
Natural History. I presented him to the Jessup 
Expedition, in charge of which was Mr. Buxton, 
whom I afterward met in Vladivostok on his 
way to the north. I tried to obtain this dog, but 
found, to my chagrin, that he had been marked 
for sacrifice, and could not be bought. After 
bidding in vain up to fifty dollars in tea, sugar, 
and silk, I came to the sad conclusion that the 
animal was not on the market. But Snevaydoff, 
my right-hand man, said to me in Russian, 
" There is a better way. We must simply take 
him and leave behind sufficient compensation.' ' 
This, of course, I hesitated to do until I found 
that the natives would gladly sell him, but did 
not dare to do so, for fear of angering the deity 
to whom he had been vowed in sacrifice. If, how- 
ever, we took the dog by force they would not 
be to blame, and could demand the price as com- 
pensation. So I left the matter with Snevaydoff 
to arrange as diplomatically as he could. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 243 

We waited a day or so for a Korak named 
Myela, who was to guide us to the sulphur de- 
posits, and when he arrived we made ready to 
start the next morning. Everything was loaded 
the night before, and some time in the night my 
Korak drivers hitched up the dogs, taking Koni- 
kly with them, and drove out of the village. 
When morning came, the owner of the dogs 
seemed much surprised to find that his dog was 
missing, and he very naturally surmised that my 
men had taken him. He demanded that I should 
pay for the stolen animal. Of course I pro- 
tested, but in the end paid the full price, and 
then every one was happy and satisfied. After 
these ethical gymnastics, we drove out of the vil- 
lage, and made our way southward to the mouth 
of a river near which point the sulphur deposits 
were supposed to be ; but I found, to my disgust, 
that the place was twenty miles inland, up an 
unnavigable river, and through a very rough 
country. I saw at a glance that it could never 
be a good mining venture, but I determined to 
go and examine the deposit, in order to be able 
to give a thorough report of the case. 

That night we arrived at Myela's home, which 
was an isolated house or hole in the ground. 
For the last twelve miles we had been gradually 
ascending the valley, and the next morning we 
saw, eight miles away, the extinct crater in 



244 IN SEARCH OF A 

which the sulphur lay. We unloaded the sledges, 
and, taking only our picks and shovels, found 
ourselves, two hours later, on the summit of the 
volcano. The crater was partly filled with snow, 
but on one side, where it had been wind-swept, it 
was not deep. We carefully descended the 
steep side of the crater until Myela stopped 
us, and said, ' Dig here." After going down 
through six feet of snow to the ground I found 
it strewn with detached boulders, covered with 
a thin film of sulphur, evidently a late solf ataric 
deposit from the crater which had been lately 
active, and the indications did not promise large 
quantities; but even if the deposit proved to be 
rich, I could see very well that mining it would 
never pay. The distance from the coast, the 
roughness of the country, and the complete ab- 
sence of timber made it out of the question. A 
careful examination of the place was, therefore, 
unnecessary. 

I was then ready to start for Cape Memaitch, 
on the western coast of the peninsula, but I per- 
ceived that if I went all the way back to Baron 
Koff Bay to make a new start, considerable time 
would be lost. One of my Koraks was tired of 
the trip, and insisted on going back home by the 
shortest route, rather than by way of Cape Me- 
maitch. He absolutely refused to cross the 
range of mountains, as the spring sun was now. 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 247 

beating down on the snow, and he feared that, 
at any time, we would be engulfed in an ava- 
lanche. I had already learned that this route 
would not be really dangerous till three weeks 
later, and that if we pushed right through we 
should be quite safe. So on the morning of 
starting I sent off the other Korak with one of 
the sledges, and then turned to the unwilling one 
and asked whether he would go with me over 
the mountains. He still said no. I drew my re- 
volver, and told him that his only chance of see- 
ing home again was to hitch those dogs up in- 
stantly and obey me to the letter. He stood for 
a moment looking into that compelling muzzle, 
and then turned, sullenly, and began harnessing 
up. I had no more trouble with him after that. 

Two reindeer sledges were engaged to show 
us the way across the mountains, and to break 
the track wherever necessary. They started a 
mile in advance, so as to keep out of sight of 
the dogs. It was easy work to follow, for it was 
simply an all-day chase for the dogs; each one 
had his nose to the ground, and was fondly 
imagining that he would soon enjoy the unpar- 
alleled delight of jumping at a reindeer's throat. 

Myela led us before night to a Korak village 
of three yourtas. As we approached it I saw a 
crowd huddled about something on the ground. 
It proved to be a middle-aged woman, lying on 

12 



248 IN SEARCH OF A 

a deerskin, and she seemed to be dying. I asked 
why they did not take her inside, and was told 
that she had asked to be brought out. I studied 
her symptoms, and decided that she was suffering 
from the grippe, and that her case demanded 
heroic treatment. She had not slept for three 
nights, so I gave her twenty grains of quinine, 
two cathartic pills, and one-tenth grain of mor- 
phine. She woke up the next morning with her 
eyes brighter, and feeling better in every way. 
I gave her ten more grains of quinine, and that 
afternoon she sat up, and dipped her hand into 
the dish of meat and " spinach," and ate her full 
share. I thought her cure was something of a 
triumph, for when I saw her she seemed to be 
in articulo mortis. As I was about to leave, the 
husband of this woman, a man of many reindeer, 
asked me if I had not forgotten something, and 
intimated that I had not paid for the meat that 
my dogs had eaten. I asked him if he did not 
think that my curing of his wife was compen- 
sation enough; nevertheless, I paid him his full 
price and departed. My Korak men told me later 
that the old fellow was angry because I had 
saved the woman, as he had already picked out 
a young and pretty girl to be her successor. 
Alas! I had unwittingly come between man and 
wife, and had wrecked (at least his) domestic 
bliss. On the whole, I am not sure but that it 
would have been kinder to have let her die. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 249 

Our way led up a succession of canons, and 
then over high mesas until we reached the sum- 
mit of the range. As we were passing up 
through these canons, we frequently ran under 
the edges of enormous overhanging drifts, and I 
looked up anxiously, but nothing fell except a 
little light snow and a few small pebbles. After 
passing the summit I determined to take no 
chances at all, and so restricted traveling to the 
night-time, when, of course, everything was 
frozen stiff. 

It was now well into April, and the sun was 
climbing up into the heavens at noon. The sur- 
face of the snow grew a little too soft to make 
day travel quite comfortable. On this side of 
the mountains I found considerable float coal, 
especially in the beds of the creeks. The whole 
country was a sandstone formation, which, of 
course, meant no gold. At last, far in the dis- 
tance, we saw the blue waters of the Okhotsk 
Sea flashing under the rays of the western sun, 
and we came down rapidly to the shore. I saw 
below us a few of the hour-glass huts, and at 
the mouth of a shallow stream a long promon- 
tory running far out into the sea. This was 
Gape Memaitch,— whither I was bound because 
the Russians had heard reports of a United 
States schooner touching at this point and taking 
away full_ cargoes of ore to San Francisco. 

The first question I asked was whether or not 



250 IN SEARCH OF A 

it was true that such a vessel had actually 
stopped there, and was answered in the affirma- 
tive. A villager offered to guide me to the spot 
from which the ore had been taken. I was natu- 
rally elated, for there was now a prospect of 
finding something that would benefit my em- 
ployers. The next morning we started out 
along the shore. The guide led me to the face of 
a sandstone bluff, and said, " Here is the place 
from which they took the ore." To say that I 
was dumfounded would be to put it mildly. 
When I had recovered sufficiently to fairly get 
my breath, I asked why this stuff had been 
loaded on the vessel, and the guide calmly replied 
that it had been done to keep the ship from turn- 
ing over. It appeared that the vessel was a Rus- 
sian, and not an American, after all. This place 
had been a favorite rendezvous for traders, and 
the schooner had come to exchange the products 
of civilization for the skins offered by the natives. 
Of course, when the vessel was unloaded it was 
necessary to secure ballast, and for this purpose 
the sandstone hacTTbeen brought into requisi- 
;ion. I shrugged my shoulders, and tried to take 
it philosophically. 

Our next move was to start on the return trip 
around the head of the Okhotsk Sea to Kami- 
naw. We had a beautiful road over the smooth 
tundra. Konikly was now leading with " Old 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 253 

Red," and every time we stopped, the two would 
fight, for the latter was very loath to share my 
affection with Konikly, whom he considered a 
parvenu. 

As we were speeding along the beaten track 
the Koraks would break out in a wild strain of 
music; then Snevaydoff would sing one of the 
Russian peasant-songs, and occasionally, not to 
be outdone, I would give them a few bars of 
some such touching lyric as " A Hot Time," or 
" After the Ball." Thus we whiled away the 
long hours on the road. 

Every few hours we changed places, letting 
each team lead in turn, for only the driver of 
the head team had any work to do. The others 
could even lie down and go to sleep if they 
wished, for the dogs drew as steadily and as 
patiently as mules. It seemed second nature to 
them. I used to sit and wonder how they could 
be trained to undergo such severe labor. I found 
out that, when only four months old, they are 
put into the hands of the small boys to train. I 
They make up little teams of pups, with the mo- 
ther dog, perhaps, as leader, and bring in water 
from the neighboring stream or drag in the fire- 
wood. By the time they are a year old they are 
ready to be turned over to a grown-up, who 
hitches up one or two of the young dogs with some 
steady old fellows, and it is not long before the 



254 SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 

training is complete. This method not only 
trains the dogs, but it teaches the boys how to 
handle them, so that by the time they are young 
men they are expert drivers. 

After several days of fine going we arrived at 
Kaminaw, where I found the Ghijiga magis- 
trate, who had come on his annual collecting tour. 
Each of the Koraks pays an annual poll-tax of 
four and a half dollars' worth of skins. These 
are taken to Ghijiga, and there auctioned off to 
the highest bidder. All these northern natives 
pay this tax, except the Tchuktches, who refuse to 
pay a cent. I found the magistrate in one of the 
huts, reclining on several bearskins, and kindly 
and affable as ever. Over him was arranged a 
sort of canopy to protect him from particles of 
dust or dirt that might fall from between the 
rafters of the building. He was dressed in his 
full regimentals of green and gold, with a sword 
at his side. He gave me a fine cup of coffee, 
and made me take a pound of the fragrant berry 
to cheer me on my way in to Ghijiga. I jealously 
guarded it, and made the grounds do duty three 
or four times over till every particle of the caffein 
had been extracted. 



CHAPTER XV 

A PERILOUS SUMMER TRIP 

The tundra in summer — Crossing the swift Paran River — 
Literally billions of mosquitos — Unique measures of pro- 
tection against these pests — Mad race down the Uchingay 
River on a raft — Lighting a fire with a pistol — Narrow 
escape from drowning — Fronyo proves to be a man of 
mettle — Pak is caught stealing from slim supply of pro- 
visions and receives chastisement — Subsisting on wild 
onions and half -ripe berries — Help at last. 

AFTER a rest of two days we started out on 
XV the home stretch toward Ghijiga, which lay 
three hundred miles to the southwest. As the 
snow was now very soft the wooden runners of our 
sledges were useless. The wet snow stuck to 
them, and made progress almost impossible. We 
therefore purchased sets of whalebone runners, 
cut from the ribs of the whale, and pared down to 
a quarter of an inch in thickness. These strips are 
pinned to the sledge runners, one piece overlap- 
ping another, and the joints worked down smooth. 
These are as good on wet snow as the iced wooden 
runners are on dry snow. We made the three 
hundred miles in four days, which was doing 

255 



256 IN SEARCH OF A 

fairly well, considering the fact that we came 
back with only half the number of dogs that we 
started out with. It is true, however, that we had 
made one or two valuable acquisitions in the dog 
line, especially Konikly, with whom I became 
more and more pleased. We fed the dogs on the 
best the land could provide, and kept them on 
the road from twelve to fourteen hours a day. 
Our provisions were, of course, almost gone, and 
we were coming back practically as " empties." 

In making long trips the natives frequently 
have to cache a part of their provisions along the 
way for use on the return trip. They make a little 
scaffold on the stumps of trees or between two or 
three living trees. Even though not set up very 
much above the snow line, the snow is so deep that 
by the time summer has melted it away the goods 
are high and dry. No one except the owner 
would ever think of touching these provisions. 

Upon my return I found that the snows were 
fast melting, and green tints were beginning to 
appear on the hillsides. I thought, however, that 
there would be enough snow to allow me to take a 
little run down the peninsula that lies between the 
two northern arms of the Okhotsk Sea in search 
of a deposit of cinnabar of which I had heard 
rumors ; but after two days of hard work, urging 
the dogs over bare tundra, I gave it up and came 
back in disgust. By June 1 the snow was quite 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 259 

gone, except upon the highest hills and in the se- 
cluded nooks where deep drifts had lain. The 
river was still very high, and filled with floating 
ice. The sun was now visible twenty hours out of 
the twenty-four. 

I was soon ready for a summer trip. The ser- 
vices of my old friend Chrisoff sky and half a 
dozen of his horses were secured, and, taking 
along my two Koreans, who had wintered at 
Ghijiga while I was making my trip to the shores 
of Bering Sea, I started out, sitting in the saddle 
which had been left in the village thirty years 
before by Mr. George Kennan. He was then 
a leading spirit in the American Russian Tele- 
graph Company, whose object was to build a line 
across Bering Strait and connect the two conti- 
nents. Of this saddle there was nothing left but 
the tree and a little leather on the cantle, bearing 
a San Francisco stamp. Mrs. Braggin said that 
Mr. Kennan had given it to her when he left; 
I rigged it up with stirrups and used it all 
summer. 

Plodding northward, we reached Chrisoffsky's 
place about bedtime, soaked with mud and water. 
The tundra was like a great marsh, through 
which we had to flounder. We tried to keep to 
the beds of the little creeks in which the water 
had worn away the moss and turf. Where this 
was not possible, we had to wade through almost 



260 IN SEARCH OF A 

bottomless mud. Even though lightly loaded, 
the horses kept sinking to the girth, and it was 
only by sheer hard work that we were able to 
average fifteen miles a day. Some days we made 
only five. 

Our objective point was the Uchingay, which 
means " Red," River. It is a comparatively 
small stream, flowing into the Paran, near its 
head. The natives had told me that at the head 
waters of this stream there were two red moun- 
tains where the rocks were filled with shiny yellow 
points. This place lay about three hundred miles 
north of Ghijiga. 

As we neared the foot-hills the trail became bet- 
ter. The tundra was one mass of brilliant flowers, 
like the wrecks of rainbows. There were plants 
of almost infinite variety, and the ground was like 
a great expanse of variegated carpeting. But 
the flowers! They were indescribably beautiful. 
Turning the shoulder of a hill, we would come 
upon a broad expanse of solid pink or scarlet, 
acres in extent, and this would give way to a blue, 
a yellow, or a lavender, either in solid color or in 
various blends. We enjoyed these beauties of na- 
ture, but, at the same time, did not fail to notice 
the fine beds of wild onions, which we pulled and 
ate with great gusto. We craved vegetables in 
summer as keenly as we had craved fat in win- 
ter. Hardly an hour passed that we did not have 



a. 

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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 263 

a shot at a duck or a goose, and our journey was 
consequently a continual feast. Konikly and 
Howka accompanied us. They lived like princes 
on the tundra rats, which swarmed about us. 
The dogs caught them cleverly, and after one 
good shake, bolted them whole. These »odents 
were the size of a small house rat. 

On June 22 we crossed the high pass leading 
into the valley of the Paran River. My aneroid 
showed an elevation of six thousand feet. That 
afternoon we were greeted with a storm of sleet 
and snow, which drove us to the shelter of a high 
precipice, where we stayed close till the following 
day. The descent once fairly begun, we soon 
came into a more genial atmosphere. Below us 
in the valley we could see the heavily wooded 
banks of the Paran where Chrisoffsky and his two 
sons were to leave me with my two Koreans and 
Fronyo, the Tunguse guide. That night we 
camped on the bank of the river. 

We were now in the primeval wilderness and 
had to subsist off the land. There were fish to 
catch and there was game to shoot, so there was 
little danger of our coming to grief. We had 
with us some fish-nets. These were made of 
horsehair obtained by barter from Central Sibe- 
ria. These nets are large enough to hold a good- 
sized salmon. By placing them at the mouths 
of little creeks, and then scaring the fish down 



264 IN SEARCH OF A 

into them, it was not difficult to secure plenty 
to eat. 

The Paran, even on its upper reaches, was a 
formidable stream two hundred yards wide, at 
this season swollen by melting snows. It was im- 
perative that we cross this river, for the Uchingay 
flowed into it from the other side. Old Chrisoff- 
sky had averred that I would never get across 
alive, but I had assured him that I could if there 
was timber near by. I had already guaranteed to 
pay for any horses that I might lose during the 
trip. When we came down to the bank of the 
river and saw the swift, sullen tide, the old man 
laughed and said, " I told you so." I knew that 
he would be an impediment to me, and that he 
would do all he could to prevent my taking the 
horses across, so I answered that as it was impos- 
sible to cross I would go into camp and wait for 
the water to go down. The old gentleman hit the 
trail for home the next day, carrying the tale that 
for once the American was beaten, and must await 
the pleasure of the Paran River. He would have 
been surprised had he seen us that very night 
safely on the other side with our baggage and 
horses intact. I confess the crossing was no easy 
feat, but it had to be done. As the river narrowed 
to a gorge with dangerous rapids less than a 
half mile below where we stood, I went three 
miles up the stream, where I found a lot of dead 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 265 

trees, averaging some ten inches in thickness. 
These we felled and cut into twelve-foot lengths, 
and bound them together with walrus rope, and 
thus were provided with a good raft. The Tun- 
guse with his ax fashioned four rough sweeps, 
and we rigged up rowlocks by mortising uprights 
into the side logs of the raft. 

We first tried, unsuccessfully, to cross by 
swimming the horses behind the raft ; the animals 
kept trying to climb upon the raft. So we put 
back to shore. Then, making long whips, we 
drove the horses into the water at a point where 
the current set across toward the other bank. By 
vigorous whipping we showed the horses that they 
were not to be allowed to come back to the shore. 
They were swept off their feet, and after one 
or two attempts to return they seemed to under- 
stand the situation, and set out for the farther 
shore, which they reached after being swept 
about a third of a mile down-stream. Then we 
shoved off and arrived without mishap on the 
other bank at almost the very spot where the 
horses had landed, and we found them quietly 
eating. 

It was now late in June, and the mosquitos had 
arrived in full force, though the flies as yet held 
off. The former pests were so thick that the air 
seemed literally filled with them as with flakes 
of snow in a heavy storm. The air was resonant 



266 IN SEARCH OF A 

with the deep humming sound from their wings. 
We all had to wear heavy gauntlet gloves tied 
tightly about the arm, and mosquito-hats made 
after a plan of my own. The summer before, I 
had made use of a broad felt hat with mosquito- 
net sewed around the rim, and with a draw-string 
at the bottom to fasten it at the throat; but 
this had proved perfectly useless because the least 
breath of wind would blow it against my face, 
and instantly a hundred mosquitos were at their 
deadly work. Besides this the net was continu- 
ally getting torn in the underbrush; conse- 
quently, I was driven by desperation to invent 
some better way. I had with me a small roll of 
fine wire screen for screening gold ore. It was 
" thirty-mesh " (thirty strands to the inch) . The 
night after we crossed the river I got out this 
roll of screen and cut out pieces six inches wide 
and twelve inches long and sewed them around 
the front rims of our hats. I cut up a couple 
of flour-sacks and sewed the strong cloth all 
aromid below the wire screen and behind the 
hat, gathering it with a string at the bottom. 
Finally I punched a small hole through the wire 
for my pipe-stem, and with this piece of armor 
on my head I could laugh at the mosquitos, and 
even succeeded in drinking tea through the screen. 
When we ate we were obliged to make a big 
smudge and sit in the smoke, and we slept in our 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 269 

hats and gloves. The special value of the wire 
screen became evident a few days later when the 
flies began to appear. There was one species of 
fly so small that it could easily penetrate the 
ordinary mosquito-netting, but could not possibly 
negotiate this wire screen. The bite of this fly 
feels like the prick of a red-hot needle, and two 
days later each bite becomes a running sore. The 
flies are far more to be dreaded than the mos- 
quitos. 

The poor horses were simply black with mos- 
quitos, though we helped them as much as we 
could by tying branches of leaves to the sad- 
dles and bridles. During the night we provided 
a good heavy smudge for the animals to stand in. 
The horses knew well its value, and would crowd 
together into the smoke to escape the cruel stings 
of their enemies. At about four o'clock each 
morning the cool temperature quieted the mos- 
quitos, and the horses could get two hours of feed- 
ing. At noon, when we lunched, the horses would 
crowd in upon us in the smoke, and even though 
beaten off, would persistently return. Fre- 
quently the camp was pervaded by the smell of 
burning hoofs and tails. The dogs suffered less, 
for their hair protected them, and at night they 
would sleep with their faces buried between their 
paws so that the mosquitos could not get at their 
vulnerable spot. 



270 IN SEARCH OF A 

Having crossed the river, we followed along its 
eastern bank till we came to the Uchingay River, 
and a few days later reached the head waters of 
this stream. We saw in the distance the two red 
mountains. In the stream I began to find float- 
rock containing iron pyrites, and I prospected 
carefully on all sides, but, with the exception of a 
few colors now and then, there was nothing of in- 
terest. When we came near the source of the 
stream I sunk shafts to bed-rock. After a thor- 
ough examination of the region I was forced to 
admit that the trip had been a failure, and pre- 
pared to retrace my steps. 

After two days on the return trail, we found 
the water of the stream fairly deep, and I deter- 
mined to make a raft and float down with my 
Tunguse guide, examining the outcroppings on 
either side of the stream, while the two Koreans 
took the horses down along the bank. I estimated 
that I could go four times as fast as the horses, 
and that if I stopped frequently to examine the 
formations I would arrive at the crossing of the 
Paran at about the same time as the Koreans. 

So we all went to work and made a raft of light 
dry sticks, twelve feet long by about eight inches 
in diameter. There were twelve sticks in all, and 
the raft was about seven feet wide. Fronyo se- 
lected three good pieces of timber and made 
sweeps, the extra one being for emergencies. We 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 271 

also had two good stout poles. All our baggage 
was loaded on the raft, fastened down securely, 
and covered with a tarpaulin. I then divided the 
food evenly, giving the Koreans their full share, 
and telling them to go to the point where we had 
crossed the Paran, and that if we did not show up 
within a certain time to make their way across the 
river and return to Ghijiga without us. I gave 
Kim the rifle and cartridges, and half the food, 
which amounted to a little rice, half a pound of 
tea, and some hard bread. I also gave him the 
fish-net. Fronyo and I kept the .shot-gun. 

We bade the Koreans good-by, and shoved off 
into the stream, which was running like a mill- 
race. We were kept busy steering the raft clear 
of the rocks with which the river was strewn. As 
yet we used only the poles. I may as well confess 
right here that this trip on the raft was a fearfully 
hazardous undertaking, for we never knew what 
sort of water we had below us ; so clumsy was our 
craft there was no chance of escape to either bank 
should danger loom suddenly ahead. But the 
hard work we had experienced in making our way 
through the tangled woods made us reverse the 
dictum of Hamlet, and, rather than bear again the 
ills we had been through, we flew to others that we 
knew not of. The rush and swirl of the angry 
waters, the narrow escape from the ragged crest 
of a reef that came almost, but not quite, to the 

13 



272 IN SEARCH OF A 

surface, and was invisible thirty feet away, the 
rush past steep cliffs and flowery banks, all 
formed such a delightful contrast to the weary 
plodding through the forest that we were willing 
to welcome almost any dangers for the sake of the 
exhilaration of this mad dash down the stream. 

The river was only about twenty yards wide at 
the point where we embarked upon it, but it 
broadened rapidly as it was fed by tributary 
streams from either side. Now and again the cur- 
rent was divided by an island, and then came to- 
gether far below. All went smoothly the first 
day, and at four o'clock we tied up to the bank and 
prepared to camp. But so great was our diffi- 
culty in finding any dry wood that it was bedtime 
before we had finished our preparations for the 
night. 

The next morning we made an early start. It 
was thought that we must be near the junction of 
the Uchingay and the Paran. Though a drizzly, 
sleety day, it did not dampen our ardor — nor that 
of the mosquitos. I had to put on a set of oilskins 
which greatly hampered my movements on the 
raft. The river had now broadened to a hun- 
dred and fifty feet, and was indeed a mighty 
torrent. We tied up to the bank frequently to 
examine the outcroppings. 

We had congratulated ourselves upon the ease 
and rapidity of our run down-stream, when sud- 



3 









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• — % MM 





SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 275 

denly we sighted white water below and knew 
there was serious trouble ahead. Our raft was so 
light that usually it would pass over any obstacles 
in the bed of the stream or at most scrape lightly 
upon them, turn around once or twice, and then 
float off into smooth water below. Of course, if 
the rocks came above the surface it was an easier 
matter to go around them. We managed to pass 
through these rapids successfully, but immedi- 
ately below them we saw that the stream divided 
into two parts, the channel to the left appearing 
to be the better one. We guided our raft accord- 
ingly, and soon found ourselves rushing down a 
gorge at railroad speed. The canon began to 
' box up " in an ugly manner, and our pace be- 
came so great that we lost control of our little 
craft. Sweeping around a bend, we saw that a 
great tree had been undermined by the water, 
and had fallen out over the stream so that two 
thirds of the narrow channel was completely 
blocked. We strove with might and main to 
pull the raft to one side in order to evade dis- 
aster, but she might as well have been an ocean 
steamer for all the effect of our futile endeavors. 
We swept under and among the branches of the 
tree, and though we hugged the raft as closely as 
possible, we were both brushed clean off. I 
seized a branch and tried to draw myself up, but 
the current snatched me away, and I was swept 



276 IN SEARCH OF A 

down-stream. I fought to regain the surface, but 
could not do it. My head was fairly bursting, 
when I felt the current pushing me up, and sud- 
denly I was shot out of the water and rolled up on 
a wooden incline. As soon as I could collect my 
wits I found, to my amazement, that I was on 
the raft again. It had landed against a rock in 
a shelving position, with the lower side under 
the water, and the water itself had provided, in 
an almost miraculous manner, the means which 
alone could save my life. Almost the first thing 
I saw was a hand above the water, grasping the 
edge of the raft, and another feeling eagerly for 
a place to get hold. Poor Fronyo was under 
water and evidently far gone. I thrust my arm in 
up to the shoulder, and got hold of his hair, 
and I had little difficulty in dragging him out 
and up on the raft. He was almost unconscious. 
I took him by the collar and the seat of the pants, 
and, by pounding his stomach on the pack, 
soon relieved him of the water he had swal- 
lowed. Twenty minutes later I was rejoiced 
to see him quite himself again, although very 
weak. 

When he had sufficiently recovered, we began 
to think of continuing our eventful journey. The 
raft was firmly lodged upon the rock, and the 
force of the current threatened to break it up at 
any moment. I waded into the water on the sub- 
merged end of the raft to ease the pressure on the 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 277 

rock, and then, with levers, we gradually swung 
her about until she drifted free of the ledge and 
went whirling down-stream. 

By good luck we encountered no more obsta- 
cles, and soon shot out into open country; and, 
in a drenching rain, we pulled up to the bank and 
hastened to make preparations for getting dry. 
Almost everything we had was soaking wet, but I 
remembered that among our impedimenta there 
was a tin box containing some matches. I rum- 
maged around and found it, but the matches were 
too damp to use. We then hunted everywhere for 
a piece of flint, but could find none. As a last re- 
source, I opened my medicine chest and took out 
a piece of absorbent cotton. Then we secured 
some dry chips from the interior of a log of dead 
wood. Opening three or four of my revolver car- 
tridges, I poured out the powder on the absorbent 
cotton and then fired a blank shell into it. This 
manceuver proved successful, and we soon had a 
roaring fire. We stood in the smoke and let our 
clothes dry while we fought the mosquitos. Now 
and then we would make a dash out of our covert 
to bring wood for the fire. In a couple of hours 
we were dry, and, lighting our pipes, we had a 
good smoke. We were able to laugh, then, at the 
ludicrous aspect of what had been a mighty close 
shave. Fronyo had done better than I, for he 
had not once loosed his hold on the raft ; and yet 
had I not been swept off and then thrown up on 



278 IN SEARCH OF A 1 

the raft again, there would have been no one to 
tell the story. 

This Tunguse, Fronyo, was game to the back- 
bone. When it came time to start out once more 
on our crazy craft, he crossed himself devoutly, 
and followed me without a murmur. He said 
that if God willed that he should die on that raft 
he would die, that was all. If he did not follow 
me wherever I went he felt that he would lose 
caste with his people and be shamed forever. 

That day I shot two sea-gulls which had come 
far inland to nest. They were not very savory 
eating, being tough and insipid. These birds 
usually come up into the interior in May, and, 
until the advent of the salmon, they have little to 
eat except berries. Each day they make a trip 
down to the coast and back. 

All our sugar was melted, and our tea had re- 
ceived a preliminary steeping; but we dried it 
out and made it do. The fact is, we were rather 
badly off for food. I had only a few paper shells 
left, and half of these were damp. 

The next morning after our adventure in the 
gorge we cut loose from the bank, and, in an 
hour's time, floated out of the Uchingay into the 
Paran, which was a hundred and twenty yards 
wide, and carried an immense volume of water. 
The river was in flood, and was filled with small 
islands, which made it difficult to choose a route ; 






Reindeer Feeding. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 281 

but all went well, and at four o'clock we pulled 
up to the bank at the spot where we had first 
crossed, and where we had agreed to meet the 
Koreans. We settled down in camp, expect- 
ing to see them on the following day. That 
afternoon I had the pleasure of killing a goose 
with a brood of little ones. After the mother 
goose had been killed the little ones took to 
a small pond, but were hunted down and killed 
in cold blood. It was no time to think of mere 
sportsmanship, as the law of self-preservation ab- 
sorbed our thoughts. Soon we heard the " honk- 
ing " of the old male goose. Fronyo took the 
dead goose and cleverly set it up with a stick 
thrust through its neck, and the other end stuck in 
the mud at the bottom of the shallow pond. The 
old gentleman goose saw his spouse sitting quietly 
on the water, and was just settling down near her 
when, not receiving any answer to his call, he 
grew suspicious and started to rise again. I 
could ill afford to waste a single cartridge, but I 
took the risk and fired. The old fellow came to 
the ground with a resounding thump. We now 
had over twenty pounds of good meat. Of the 
little goslings we made a soup, adding a good 
quantity of wild onions; and it would have been 
a dish fit for a king had we possessed a little salt. 
But our supply had been melted. 

The next day we heard a rifle-shot in the woods. 



282 IN SEARCH OF A 

This was the signal agreed upon, and soon Koni- 
kly and Howka came running into camp half 
famished, and eagerly bolted the bones that we 
had thrown aside. We could not waste a car- 
tridge on an answering shot, so Fronyo went out 
to meet the Koreans, and soon brought them into 
camp, and there followed an interesting inter- 
change of experiences since we had parted com- 
pany on the Uchingay. I found that they had 
not hoarded their provisions at all, but, with true 
Korean improvidence, had eaten up everything. 
For the morrow they had no thought. I took a 
careful inventory of stock, and found that we had 
two geese, a little wet rice, some tea, and hard 
bread. The outlook was certainly not pleasing, 
for it would take at least six days to get within 
the radius of civilization. 

To recross the river we used the same heavy 
raft that we had crossed on before, dragging it a 
mile up-stream before venturing to embark. The 
horses knew that they were on the homeward trail, 
and breasted the swift tide willingly. 

Before starting out to cross the mountains on 
the way to Ghijiga, it was imperative that we 
should supplement our slender stock of food, for 
there would be several days during which we could 
hope to get very little along the way. With our 
small fish-net I tried a little arm of the river, and 
succeeded in catching two fine harritongaSj each 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 283 

weighing nearly three pounds. They were black 
on top, with a yellow belly, and supplied us with a 
delicious white meat. The dorsal fin extends 
from the neck to the tail. It is a favorite dish in 
Russia, where it is called the harm. Try as I 
might, I could catch no more. 

I decided that it would be necessary to send 
Fronyo on ahead with the best horse and most of 
the food, with instructions to hurry to Ghijiga 
and secure from the magistrate the necessary 
food, and then hasten back to our relief. I wanted 
certain special articles of food, and as I could not 
write Russian, and as Fronyo could not be ex- 
pected to know the different kinds of foreign 
food, I was driven to use the primitive ideographic 
method. My note to the magistrate, therefore, 
consisted of a series of pictures, representing 
roughly the things that I wanted and the amount. 
First came a picture of a Tunguse leading a 
pack-horse, and then the " counterfeit present- 
ment " of a tin of beef, with the number twelve 
appended. Then came loaves of bread, with tins 
of butter following, and a noble array of other 
edibles. To my fancy it was the most interesting 
procession I had ever witnessed. 

Fronyo said that we need have no fear, for if 
worse came to worst, we could live on the wild 
onions and the inside bark of the fir-trees, which 
grew here and there among the mountains, while 



284 IN SEARCH OF A 

on the tundra there were plenty of tundra rats — 
appetizing thought ! Of course, if we had been in 
any real danger of starvation, we could have im- 
molated the horses and dogs on the altar of Epi- 
curus, but we did not propose to do this, except 
as a last resort. 

The wild onion is considered the best cure for 
the scurvy, and is eaten eagerly as soon as it be- 
gins to appear in the spring. It is said, though I 
had no opportunity to see a case, that if scurvy 
is imminent and some of the wild garlic is eaten, 
the body breaks out in an eruption which passes 
away in a few days. The onion seems to expel 
the germs through the skin by means of this 
eruption. 

The natives strip the birchbark from the trees 
while it is still green, and cut it into long threads 
like vermicelli. On entering a village it is quite a 
common sight to see the women cutting up this 
bark for food. They ferment the juice of this 
birchbark and make a mild alcoholic drink. 
They also eat the berries of the shad-bush and the 
bark of the sallow, a kind of willow. 

These people have acquired a remarkable 
knowledge of the virtues of various plants. Some 
of these tribes are accustomed to dip the points 
of their arrows into a decoction of a species of 
ranunculus, and wounds so inoculated are in- 
curable unless the poison is immediately drawn 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 285 

out. Even whales, if wounded with these arrows, 
come near the shore and expire in dreadful 
agony. 

Fronyo started out at a good pace while we 
stayed behind to try and secure more game be- 
fore hitting the trail across the mountains. We 
secured two more fish, and at four o'clock in the 
afternoon were on the road, which we kept till ten 
o'clock. The next morning, after half a break- 
fast, we pushed on up the valley through the foot- 
hills of the range that we had to cross, none of us 
any too cheerful, but all determined. 

That day I discovered some crumbs of bread in 
Pak's beard, and investigation showed that he 
had been making a square meal of a large portion 
of our remaining small stock of bread. It may 
be pardoned me, under the circumstances, that I 
drew off and hit him a good shoulder blow in the 
left eye, which felled him to the ground. This 
proved to be an unfortunate form of punishment, 
for he was the Korean who possessed only one 
good eye, and that was good no longer. My 
anger, righteous though it may have been, turned 
instantly to solicitude. I blamed myself without 
measure for my hasty action, went into camp and 
founded a hospital on the spot. For the next 
twenty-four hours all my energies and resources 
were centered on that unhappy eye. I can truly 
say that I have never hit anything since without 



286 IN SEARCH OF A 

first making sure that the object of my punish- 
ment had a spare eye. Later on my conscience 
forced me to give him a silver watch and a new 
suit of clothes. I rather think the other Korean 
envied him that blow when he saw the final 
result. 

To my vast relief the eye healed, and we went 
on. The third day saw us over the mountains and 
crawling across the tundra. We had thrown away 
all our bedding and blankets, and each was astride 
a horse. On the fourth day we were reduced to 
wild onions and half -ripe berries, which induced 
a violent diarrhea. We came at last to where 
sea-gulls were nesting, but they were so shy that 
we could not get near them. Konikly had gone 
on with Fronyo, but we still had Howka with us, 
and he was getting fat on the tundra rats. It was 
to him, now, that we looked for food. He would 
make a rush at a sea-gull, and, as the bird flew 
from its nest on the tundra, he would begin to 
devour the eggs ; but we would rush up and drive 
him off and secure the loot. The eggs were far 
gone, and would have been ready to hatch in an- 
other week. We boiled them, and the Koreans 
ate the embryonic sea-gulls while I ate the albu- 
minous substance that still remained. About 
this time we began to think of sacrificing one of 
the horses to the common good, but no one of us 
was strong enough to walk, and the horses were 




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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 289 

therefore spared. The dog we could not kill, for 
he was our chief provider. 

We plodded on until we were about two days' 
journey from Chrisoff sky's house, when one 
morning I descried, far across the tundra, a line 
of some fifteen pack-horses and men. We 
spurred on gladly to meet the welcome relief. 

I found that half a dozen of the officers and 
men of the steamer which my employers had sent 
for me had come to hunt me up. Never have I 
seen such a glorious sight as those well-dressed 
men and those loaded horses. The captain dis- 
mounted, and I tried to address him in Russian, 
but he said, " You forget that I speak English." 
Now, it may seem scarcely credible, and yet it is 
true, that for a few moments I was almost totally 
unable to converse with him in my native tongue. 
I had not used a word of it in conversation for 
fourteen months, and my low physical condition 
acting on my nerves, confused my mind, and I 
spoke a jumble of English, Russian, and Korak. 
It was a week before I could talk good, straight 
English again. 

We camped right where we had been met, and 
the packs were opened up immediately. I sat on 
a sack filled with potatoes, and watched them 
bring out coffee, then some bacon, then some 
fresh eggs ! Then the captain came with a bottle 
of champagne and handed me a glass. This I 



290 IN SEARCH OF A 

held in one hand, and with the other I reached 
down and extracted a potato, and fell to munch- 
ing it raw, sipping the champagne between bites, 
while I watched them build a fire and prepare the 
food. It was a feast that I shall never forget. 
After it a box of good cigars was circulated, 
which added the final touch to my felicity. 

When the inner man had been satisfied, I 
began to think of how the outer man might be 
improved upon. My clothes were in rags, my 
weight had fallen from one hundred and sixty 
pounds to one hundred and fifteen, my beard was 
long and unkempt, my boots were in shreds. 
The good friends had thoughtfully brought 
along my steamer trunk, which now lay in one 
of the tents. I ordered several kettles of water 
heated, and stripping behind the tent, I threw 
the noisome rags, with all their denizens, as far 
into the bush as I could, and then went in and 
had a glorious tubbing. I got into a suit of soft 
flannels, Scotch tweed knickerbockers and a Nor- 
folk jacket, and after shaving and grooming 
myself for an hour, the loathsome larva that had 
crawled into camp emerged from that tent a be- 
jeweled butterfly. That delicious moment was 
worth almost as much as it cost. 

Then we made our way back to Ghijiga, where 
I distributed presents among my friends, native 
and foreign, and boarded the steamer for Vladi- 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 291 

vostok. I reached that place twelve days later, 
and gave account of my travels and explorations. 
The search for a Siberian Klondike had been, so 
far, a failure. This is not the place for a tech- 
nical account of my observations in northern 
Siberia, but this much I may say: though there 
may be gold within the radius that I covered, I 
satisfied myself that there were no extensive 
auriferous deposits on the streams flowing into 
the Okhotsk Sea near its head, nor in the beach 
sands along the shore of Bering Sea, south of the 
Anadyr River. But, of course, the whole ques- 
tion was not yet settled, for there remained the 
whole stretch of the northeast peninsula, above 
the point I had reached, and it turned out that } xy 
work was not yet finished. 



CHAPTER XVI 

A TEN-THOUSAND-MILE RACE 

Persistent rumors of gold in the Tchuktche peninsula — 
Count Unarliarsky — I am called to Vladivostok to fit out 
an expedition — Our vessel arrives off Indian Point — 
Charging through the ice-floes — A meeting with Eskimos 
— Our prospecting proves fruitless — We meet the rival 
expedition in Plover Bay — Their chagrin — The end. 

THE winter following my explorations in 
Northeast Siberia I spent in the United 
States, during which time the papers contained 
frequent reports of rich finds on the Siberian 
coast, opposite Cape Nome. The company that 
had employed me still believed that there was gold 
to be found in this region, and were determined 
to test the matter thoroughly. The papers stated 
that the Russian Government had granted to 
Count Unarliarsky the mining rights to the whole 
Tchuktche peninsula, which is the extreme north- 
eastern portion of Siberia, between the Anadyr 
River and the Arctic Ocean. From St. Peters- 
burg we learned that the Count must present the 
papers of his franchise to the Governor at Anadyr 
before he could legitimately take possession. 

292 






S t 




SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 295 

Any claims staked out before that time would be 
valid, according to Russian law. In order to pre- 
sent his papers before the Governor, the Count 
would have to wait till navigation opened up late 
in May, for the town of Anadyr lies far up the 
river of that name, and is ice-locked till well into 
the summer. 

I received a cablegram to hurry out to Vladi- 
vostok, and make ready to start at an hour's no- 
tice. It was the intention of our company to 
charter a steamer for four months, and, with 
thirty Russian miners, steam with all speed 
toward the north, make a hasty examination of 
the beaches in question, and even though there 
might be American miners there (who would be 
without Government permission), we were to 
stake out claims and then hurry to Anadyr and 
file our papers before the Governor should have 
so much as heard of the existence of the Count. 
In all this we were well within the law, and, as our 
company had already spent a large sum of money 
in the work, it was but right to use every legal 
means to establish a claim to at least a portion of 
the field. 

Through our agent at St. Petersburg we were 
kept informed of the movements of our rivals. 
Our agent in San Francisco was instructed to in- 
form me, by cable, as to what steamer the Count 
chartered, her speed and equipment. Meanwhile 



296 IN SEARCH OF A 

I was busy looking up a vessel, and after great 
difficulty, secured the Russian steamer Progress, 
Captain Gunderson. I provisioned her for six 
months, filled her up with coal enough for five 
months' steaming, and by June 3 everything 
was ready. The previous day I had received a 
cablegram from San Francisco, stating that the 
rival expedition, under the management of Count 
Bogdanovitch and George D. Roberts, an Ameri- 
can mining engineer, would sail from that port 
on June 6. Their speed was ten knots, and 
they would stop at Nome and one or two other 
[United States ports. They were in no hurry, and 
were entirely in ignorance of our existence. 
Their boat was the Samoa, sl Puget Sound lumber 
vessel. We could make eleven knots an hour, and 
had a slightly shorter route to follow than they. 
Furthermore, we knew, and they did not. We 
learned that at Plover Bay, on the Russian side, 
they were to meet a Russian gun-boat named the 
Yakut, which would help to drive away any 
American miners who might surreptitiously have 
opened up claims on the Siberian side. Of these 
rumor said that there were some three thousand. 
At five o'clock in the afternoon of June 3 
we turned our prow seaward, but, after going a 
hundred yards, a bolt gave way in the engine, and 
we had to lay up for repairs. I chafed at the en- 
forced delay, but the next morning we were off. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 297 

Before we had cleared the entrance of the long, 
winding bay, we ran into a heavy fog-bank, and, 
after feeling our way along for a while, we were 
obliged to drop anchor again. When the fog 
lifted we found that we had passed within a hun- 
dred yards of a rocky promontory, and had es- 
caped only by good luck. It was not till the next 
day that we reached the open sea, and six days 
later we were riding at anchor in the harbor of 
Petropaulovsk. At that point I put off four men 
to open up a copper vein that I had located the 
first time I had passed that way. After having 
filled our water-tanks again, we pushed toward 
the north. In Bering Sea we found it still cold 
and foggy, but we kept the vessel up to her eleven 
knots, even at the risk of suddenly encountering 
ice. By keeping a sharp lookout and frequently 
taking the temperature of the water, we lessened 
the danger as much as possible. 

Some of the Russian miners on board were set 
to work making a large United States flag, with 
which to decoy natives on board, for they can 
scarcely be induced to go on board a Russian ship, 
because of the rough treatment they frequently 
receive. On June 14 the temperature of the 
water suddenly dropped from forty to thirty- 
four degrees, which showed plainly that we were 
nearing ice. We slowed down, and half an 
hour later sighted an iceberg through the mist. 



298 IN SEARCH OF A 

As our vessel was of steel and without compart- 
ments, a very slight blow would put us hors de 
combat 3 so we took every precaution. There were 
but two life-boats for a crew of seventy men in 
all, many of whom would be likely to make 
trouble in case of accident. The ship's officers 
and I always had our revolvers handy for any 
emergency. 

On the 16th we arrived off Cape Chaplain, 
or Indian Point, as the Americans usually call it. 
Between us and the shore there lay a band of ice 
at least thirty-five miles broad. We tried to dis- 
cover an opening in it, but without success. We 
therefore headed for St. Lawrence Island, which 
lies near Bering Strait and belongs to Uncle 
Sam. As soon as we had cast anchor the natives 
came off to see us. The men were small but 
stocky, and looked much like North American 
Indians. Their women are rather good-looking, 
but are accustomed to tattoo as soon as they reach 
the age of womanhood. We found that about 
two thirds of the tribe were suffering either from 
the measles or the grippe. The mountains that 
loomed up in the background were used as burial- 
places. The dead were laid there, exposed, and 
the dogs and wild animals soon disposed of them. 
The higher the rank of the dead man the higher 
he was placed on the mountain. 

Dr. Lorego of the Presbyterian Mission came 




Picked up on the Ice off St. Lawrence Island. 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 301 

off to see us, and courteously invited us ashore. 
It was an invitation that I gladly accepted. 
Through him I learned from the natives they 
were imaware that any American miners had 
landed on the Siberian side. 

As we were about to weigh anchor and go in 
search of an opening in the ice by which we could 
reach the Asiatic shore, a steamer loomed up 
through the fog. She dropped anchor near us, 
and I found, to my delight, that she was the ex- 
United States cutter Corwin, which, at that 
time, belonged to the Corwin Trading Company. 
On board were several American miners from 
Nome, who were bound for Indian Point, where 
they firmly believed gold was to be found. The 
captain of the Corwin kindly offered to guide us 
through the ice, and, if necessary, to lend us an 
ice pilot. I therefore contracted with him, for 
five hundred dollars, to cut a channel through the 
ice to Indian Point. We learned that there is 
always a narrow strip of water between the ice 
and the shore up and down the coast at that sea- 
son. As the wind was rising I hurried back to 
my vessel and asked our captain to make ready 
to follow the Corwin, but within an hour a gale 
was raging, and the Corwin signaled us to follow 
her under the shelter of the island. 

It was a beautiful sight to see Captain West 
of the Corwin handle his vessel as easily as though 



302 IN SEARCH OF A 

it were a rowboat on a lake. He had spent 
twenty years in the Arctic seas, and knew his 
business thoroughly. Before our anchor was 
fairly up he was steaming away before the gale a 
mile in advance. We followed him around the 
point of the island to a sheltered nook, and there 
dropped anchor to await the cessation of the 
storm. 

The next morning the day broke fine and clear. 
Captain West affirmed that to see a perfect sum- 
mer day one must go to the far north. The Cor- 
win took the lead, and a five-mile run brought us 
to the edge of the ice-pack. There the Corwin 
slowed down, and we ran as close alongside as 
was safe. Captain West shouted through the 
megaphone, " Good-morning. I find the ice 
pretty heavy, but it is loose, and with care you 
will be able to follow us." He then sent to us 
Captain Coffin, an old-time whaling captain, 
whom he happened to have with him on the Cor- 
win, to act as ice pilot for our boat. Captain 
Coffin has a record of over forty years in the 
north seas. As I was anxious to have the expe- 
rience of smashing through the ice on an ice- 
breaker, I went aboard the Corwin. The Prog- 
ress followed about six lengths behind. 

The Corwin has twelve feet of solid green- 
heart timber in her bows, four feet of the same on 
the sides, and two feet aft. She is barkentine 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 305 

rigged, a hundred and twenty feet long, with a 
speed of nine knots. She is twenty-four years 
old, all but one of which have been spent in Arctic 
waters. 

When all is ready Captain West mounts to the 
crow's-nest to con the ship, and Captain Forrest, 
another old whaler, is on the bridge. The wheel 
is in the hands of two intelligent Boston sailors. 
Captain West sings out, " One bell — starboard — 
steady! " and we are off. It looks as if it were 
going to be a ticklish business for the Progress, 
with only half an inch of steel to withstand the 
pressure of the loose bergs, but I say to myself 
that with Captain Coffin in the crow's-nest, and 
the Corwin in the lead, it is ten to one that she 
comes through without even knocking the paint 
off. 

As we gather speed I hurry to the stern to see 
how the Progress is coming on. She winds her 
way beautifully between the bergs, in and out 
through the passage which we are making. 

Some of the ice the Corwin can push to one side 
or the other, but when this is not possible she 
backs up in order to get good headway, and 
charges the obstruction, and strikes it fairly be- 
tween the eyes. She comes to a dead stop, and 
quivers from stem to stern with the tremendous 
impact. A rending, grinding noise is heard, and 
the berg which challenged us is a berg no longer; 



306 IN SEARCH OF A 

and its fragments are brushed aside as we push 
our way through. Captain West laughingly calls 
from above, " Get out of the way, if you don't 
want to get hit." So on we go, backing and turn- 
ing, and plunging and wriggling through the ice. 

As we were thus engaged I espied a seal, about 
three hundred yards off our starboard bow, and, 
seizing a Winchester, I let drive. The captain 
called down, " Killed; good shot." I should have 
done well to rest on my laurels, for though I had 
above forty more shots that day I did not kill 
anything. 

By six o'clock we were through the ice and in 
open water again, with Indian Point, or Cape 
Chaplain, dead ahead. Almost immediately we 
were boarded by the natives, who called out: 

" Hello, hello, how d' ye do? " 

We answered in kind. Then, after a string of 
lurid oaths in bad English, they said: 

" Plenty man cough — make die — you got 
medicine? ' But to our question as to how many 
people there were in their village they replied: 

" Don't know." 

" Why, can't you count? " 

" No; Siberia side all d— n fools." At which 
we were forced to smile. 

' Say, you got chaw tobacco? " I could not re- 
main deaf to this appeal, so I cut up a cigar and 
watched it go into their mouths. Then, after I 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 309 

had taken their photograph in a group, we all 
went ashore, where I found a few native skin huts 
and one or two houses built with timber which 
they had obtained in trade from whalers. These 
were modeled after the houses that the whalers 
or missionaries had erected. 

Indian Point is a long, low spit of land, and is 
a freak of nature, being nothing more nor less 
than a moraine in the sea. The great icebergs 
ground here and melt, dropping the stone and 
gravel which they have brought from some dis- 
tant bay where they were born. 

Kovarri, the old chief of the tribe, came aboard, 
and we interviewed him. He said there were no 
American miners on the Siberian side. We did 
not believe him implicitly, but found later that he 
had told the truth. We succeeded in hiring a 
noted native pilot to show us along the coast. He 
was named " Shoo Ely," and came of very mixed 
parentage. These natives were all large, strong, 
and hearty, and were good sailors, having had ex- 
perience on many United States whalers, which 
recruit their crews among these men before going 
up into the Arctic Sea. These fellows are splen- 
did oarsmen, and as good as Americans at chasing 
whales. They speak a little English, especially 
the bad words, and chew as much tobacco as they 
can lay their hands on, while as for drink, they 
are crazy for it. The natives just to the south of 



310 IN SEARCH OF A 

them are very different, for they have not come 
in contact with the whalers to so great an extent. 

I shipped a boat's crew of these men, and 
steamed north to St. Lawrence Bay. In the 
steam-launch we explored every portion of the 
shore of this bay, but could find no trace of gold, 
although this was the very spot that Count 
Unarliarsky was depending upon to make the 
fortune of his company. Then we steamed north 
into Bering Strait. Here lie the two islands, 
" Big Diomed " and " Little Diomed," one Rus- 
sian and the other American. After prospecting 
in vain we returned to the mainland, and rounded 
East Cape, and found ourselves, for the first time, 
on the waters of the Arctic Ocean. We landed at 
a little village built on the steep slope of a high 
hill. It had just lost one half its population 
through measles and the grippe. Corpses were 
lying about, half eaten by the dogs. A little child 
had a leather thong tied through the eye-holes of 
a skull, and was dragging it about for a cart. 
The child's father said he did not know whose 
skull it was. After the dogs had gotten through 
with it how was he to tell! These people live in 
regular Eskimo huts, built of stone, in the shape 
of a half -sphere, and with a long tunnel for an 
entrance, through which they crawl on hands and 
knees. 

Nothing could be more desolate than the pros- 



SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 311 

pect at this point. Behind the village was a bleak 
hill. The beach was only fifty feet wide, and be- 
fore it lay the grim Arctic Sea. There was only 
one thing of beauty, and that was the skin boats 
of the natives, which were drawn up on the beach. 
They were shaped like an American whale-boat, 
and were capable of carrying forty men. In 
these they follow the ice-pack, and capture seals 
and walruses, and occasionally a whale. A few 
of the natives have secured bomb-guns from the 
whalers. 

Whenever a whaling-vessel completes its cargo 
and is ready to turn toward home, it disposes of 
all its whale-boats to the natives, taking, in return, 
whalebone, ivory, and skins. A good boat will 
bring one thousand dollars' worth of such goods. 
The condition of these natives is pitiable in the 
extreme. Disease and filth are doing their work, 
and it is a wonder that any of them have survived 
as long as they have. The whalers sell them 
spirits at a small price, and, being utterly without 
self-control, they speedily become slaves to drink. 
The American Government makes no effort to 
stop this sort of thing, and the Russian Govern- 
ment can do but little to stop it with a single 
little gunboat. 

We went as far north as the Arctic Circle, but, 
finding no gold in the beach sands nor in the float- 
rock in the rivers, we turned south again, and, 



312 IN SEARCH OF A 

after picking up some men whom we had left to 
finish prospecting St. Lawrence Bay, we con- 
tinued south, examining the coast as we went. 
We looked into Plover Bay, with the expectation 
of finding the Samoa there; and not seeing her 
we steamed out, and, with the aid of the launch 
and the native boat crews, examined the southern 
part of the Tchuktche peninsula. There were 
splendid deposits of steaming-coal, but the gen- 
eral geologic formation made it plain that there 
was no gold to be found. 

Once more we steamed into Plover Bay, but 
the Samoa had not yet arrived, and we deter- 
mined to wait for her. Two days were spent in 
the pleasant occupation of hunting eider-duck 
and making a short trip into the interior. On 
the third day we heard, through the fog, the 
sound of a siren whistle. Of course we answered, 
and an hour later the Samoa came nosing through 
the fog and picking her way through the light 
drift-ice. As soon as her anchor was down I went 
aboard. As I went up the gangway I saw half 
a dozen Russians and as many Americans stand- 
ing in a group on the deck. I walked up to them, 
but before I had time to introduce myself Count 
Bogdanovitch said: 

" Captain, I am glad to see you. You Have 
some coal for us, I believe? " 

" No ; I have not any for you," I said, smiling. 



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SIBERIAN KLONDIKE 315 

" Oh, you are a steam-whaler," and his face 
fell. 

" No, not a whaler," I said. 

' Well, then, what are you here for? " he asked, 
curiously. 

" I am on the same errand as you." 

As soon as he comprehended he was terribly 
angry, and apparently wished me at the bottom 
of the sea. He turned on his heel and walked 
away, without doing me the courtesy of asking 
me into the cabin, although it was raining. But 
one of the Americans stepped forward, and I 
was taken to their quarters, where explanations 
followed. I told them the situation, how that we 
had carefully prospected all along the coast, but 
h ad found no gol d. I felt I was doing them a 
favor to let them know that there was no use in 
spending time and money in a search for gold 
along the Siberian coast of Bering Sea. 
Whether or not they believed me I cannot tell, 
but the next morning we weighed anchor, and 
left them there waiting for the arrival of the 
Yakut. 

The search for a Siberian Klondike was over. 



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